


Of Wine and War

by TenshiNoKiri



Series: Of Wine and War [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Abuse, First Time, M/M, Minor, Minor Character Death, POV First Person, Violence, bond, n/c
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-02-22 08:54:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 17
Words: 33,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2501888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenshiNoKiri/pseuds/TenshiNoKiri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war Percy just wanted as close to a normal summer as a demigod can have, but Ares has other plans. Can Mr.D save him from an eternity of being Ares’ slave?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Of Wine and War

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after The Last Olympian.

Honestly, after last summer, I was expecting a nice relaxing time at Camp Half-Blood. I mean, we had all helped save the world. Some of us even died trying to stop Kronos from taking Olympus. In the end we were honored as heroes, even Luke had managed to redeem himself before he died. With the war averted I looked forward to a calm summer filled with combat training.

I waved good-bye to my mom and Paul before setting off over the hill. I had stayed home for an extra week to celebrate my mom becoming a published author. Last night we had my going away meal with blueberry pie for dessert. 

The fleece glittered in the sunlight as Peleus, the dragon, gently snored beneath it. I reached the top of the hill and looked out over the camp for the first time in nine months. I wish I could say that I was surprised to see so many new kids running around the camp, but after the oath I had the gods make last summer; I was a little surprised that there weren't more. Apollo’s cabin was going to need additions though. I had no idea that that guy was so popular with women. Although I guess it makes sense since he is the god of poetry and music. What woman could resist being serenaded by the sun god? I looked over at the cabins to see the progress that had been made over the school year. The U that was made up of the twelve cabins of the major gods was now surrounded by the cabins of the minor gods. I hadn't realized that there were that many minor gods in the Greek mythos, and to count them all would have taken way too long, especially with my ADHD. I looked closer at the cabins of the major gods and realized that across from the cabin of Zeus, past the hearth in the center, was a new large black cabin facing the rest. I looked closer and saw that in the freezes around the roof were skulls and figures of souls being corralled by hooded skeletons across what looked like a river. A shiver went up my spine. This was Hades's cabin.

I looked over at Athena’s cabin. Things with Annabeth had gone well for a little while, but in the end we called it off. She was still upset over Luke, even after his death he is still a touchy subject. I won’t deny that he died a hero, but that isn't how he lived. How many of our friends’ deaths had he been responsible for? How many kids at camp were now without at least one sibling, if not more? Yes, he stopped Kronos in the end. And, yes, in so doing saved us all and stopped the fall of western civilization, but anytime his name came up Annabeth would become extremely defensive. On top of that, she was really jealous. I mean, I thought it was bad when Rachel had been with us, but that was before we even started dating. Then I couldn't even be in the same room as another female (human, monster, or dryad). I really hoped we could still be friends but judging by the glares her siblings were giving me, I figured I’d be on my own this summer. The whole thing was made even more frustrating by the fact that I had given up immortality to be with her. But as I looked at all the new kids who finally knew the truth about who their parents were and would now learn to protect themselves, I realized that I had made the right choice.

As I walked to Poseidon’s cabin I couldn't help but think back to the last conversation I’d had with my father. “I suppose this means I can claim all those other sons and daughters of mine and send you some siblings next summer.” He never did say whether or not he was kidding. I guess I was going to find out, and with that thought I pushed open the door. 

Even though I was a week late to camp, the room was empty. No cluttered bunks, no trash littering the floor, and no other children of Poseidon. At first I was relieved, I mean, I won’t have to adjust to a new roommate, and I could still call lights out whenever I wanted. However, I couldn't help but miss Tyson a little in that moment, but he was the general of the Cyclopes army now. I couldn't expect him to come to camp just to clean up my room so I could pass inspection. Plus he had our father’s palace to help rebuild. I sighed; I guess I really was on my own this summer.

After I had put my stuff away I decided to walk down to the big house. Who knew, maybe I could talk to Rachel. I know she’s the Delphi Oracle now, and I swear on the River Styx, I don’t think of her in a romantic way at all anymore. She’s just a friend who I haven’t seen in a while. I also wanted to hear how her first year at Clarion Lady’s Academy went. I hope she hadn't made too many prophecies at random moments during the school day. I’m sure that would be awkward.

I looked at the watch that Tyson had made me nearly three years ago. It was already 4pm and a very hot summer day. As I looked toward the ocean I thought how nice it would be if, for once, the barrier would let a rain cloud or two to pass over the camp. I shielded my eyes as I made my way up the porch steps to the big house. 

“Nice of you to finally join us Peter Johnson,” came a voice to my left. I looked over to see Dionysus with his leopard print Hawaiian shirt and dark curly hair. He sat in his rocking chair reading a copy of Wine Connoisseur.

I had hoped that after everything we went through last summer he would remember my name and stop being so condescending. No such luck.

“Hey Mr.D, is Rachel in?” 

“Up stairs most likely,” He shrugged. “I cannot believe that anyone would pay so much for a bottle of Merlot! Not to mention that that year was a horrible year for wine!”

“What made that year so bad?” I asked. I’m 16 years old, what do I know about wine?

“It was the year I was exiled it this infernal camp,” he said as he glared at me. I took that as my queue to leave.

I stepped inside the house and made my way up the stairs. I came to a guest room on the second floor that literally said “Rachel” in big bold letters on the door. Underneath that in slightly smaller letters it said “Oracle of Delphi”. I knocked and heard Rachel’s voice call “come in” from the other side of the door.

I pushed open the door and stepped into a room that might have been messier then my own room back home. But, unlike my room back home, it wasn’t messy because of dirty clothes and trash wrappers on the floor; Rachel’s room was covered by drawings and art supplies lying around. I saw a door on the other side of the room with a light coming from the other side. ‘Of course Apollo’s Oracle has her own bathroom’, I thought. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been in the middle of showering when Ares’ cabin would get tired of waiting their turn and just barge in. Which is even worse considering Hermes’ cabin was usually supposed to be next.

“Rachel?” I called.

“I’ll be right out.”

‘Ok so I guess I’ll just wait for her,’ I thought. I decided to look at some of the pictures that were scattered around the room. My eyes fell on one in particular. It was a picture of a boy from his chest up. He was shirtless lying on, what I realized, was a bed with his arms raised over his head. No, scratch that, his hands were bound above his head with a fraying rope. I stepped closer to get a better look and realized a few more things about the picture. The boy’s eyes where tightly shut while his mouth hung open almost panting. His hair was messy and some of it was sticking to his face from what I assumed was sweat. What I thought was a rope binding his hands had tiny leaves sprouting from them. But I think the thing that shocked me most was that I recognized the boy. He was me. 

I don’t realize how freaked out I was by this until I heard the door knob turning, and jumped, nearly tripping over art supplies and crumpled papers. 

“Sorry about making you wait,” Rachel said as she turned off the light to the bath room. I hoped it wasn't too obvious that I was uncomfortably nervous.

“How are you?” she asked as she came up and hugged me. “I heard about you and Annabeth. I’m sorry that things didn't work out.”

“Thanks Rachel, but I’m ok. I mean, I'm sort of bummed about it but maybe some time apart is what we need. Who knows, maybe we can work things out and get back together,” I said trying to sound positive about a really crumby situation. “It’s just that, well, we've been through so much together. I’d hate for things to end this way, you know?”

“Yeah, I’m sure you two can… oh not again --” Her face got really pale and she doubled over in pain. Almost instantly she stood up straight again, her eyes glowing serpent green. I was about to hear a prophecy.

“The son of the sea trapped by war,  
A plot to turn hero into a whore,  
Yet in the vine, salvation reap,  
Bound forever, his to keep”

I had to rush forward to catch her before she fell. I tried to process what I just heard. ‘The son of the sea trapped by war’ had to refer to me, but the war was over. As for the rest of the prophecy, I didn't know what to make of it, but it didn't sound good. And the part about a hero becoming a whore, I started to get angry at the thought that anyone would even think about doing that to one of my friends. 

“I’m sorry,” Rachel said a little dazed. “What did I say?” 

I helped her over to the bed. I figured it would be better to lie to her until I had time to figure out what it all meant. 

“Nothing really,” I said shrugging. “Something about tonight’s dinner and training… you know, basic camp stuff.” She didn’t seem to buy it, but she let it go.  
“Hey it’s about 4:30, you wanna just walk around and catch up until dinner?” She asked me. “I’ve been cooped up in Clarion all year, and then, when I get here, everyone else is off training so I’m stuck here by myself all day.”

“Yeah, let’s go. And I’ll try not to ask any more questions,” I said with an honest smile. 

“I’d really appreciate that,” she said with a little laughter in her voice. 

We walked around the lake and I told her about my year at school, and what it was like to have an English teacher who is also your stepfather. Don’t get me wrong, I think Paul’s great, but it’s really hard to hide your horrible spelling test scores from your mom when Paul corrects the tests at the dinner table. 

Rachel’s year hadn't been much better. As she suspected, she didn't fit in with the snobs at Clarion. She had mostly kept to herself, and tried not to talk to anyone. She said that she hadn't given too many prophecies and that usually, when she felt one coming on, she would quickly duck into an empty room or a bathroom. On one occasion she had even run into the boy’s locker room and given a prophecy to the entire, naked, varsity football team about how they would win their game, but the quarterback’s girlfriend was cheating on him with her math tutor. I couldn't help but laugh at the story. 

“Anyway after that incident the guys wouldn't stop hitting on me, and all the girls thought I was a slut or something,” Rachel said exasperatedly.

“Well, if those guys ever tried anything I think Apollo would blow them to pieces,” I assured her.

It was about 7ish now so we decided to make our way to the Mess Hall. Rachel went up to the head table to eat and I sat alone at Poseidon’s table. The meal was really uncomfortable, mostly because the entire Athena table was glaring daggers at me. I really wonder what she had told them happened between us, because from what I remember I hadn't done anything to deserve those sort of looks. Oh well, I guess I just had to get used to it.

After dinner the rest of the campers went to the camp fire to be lead in songs by Apollo’s cabin. I decided that it would be a good time to go to the stables and check on the pegasi. I’m sure Blackjack missed me. 

‘Boss, you’re here! You didn't show up when the other campers did, and Guido said that you weren't coming back!’ Blackjacks voice said in my mind. ‘But you did come back boss!! Did you bring me any doughnuts?’

“Hey Blackjack, I’m glad to see you too,” I said smiling up at an all black pegasus. “Sorry buddy, no doughnuts.”

‘Can I have an apple? I like apples boss.’

“I don’t have any apples on me either. How about some oats?”  
‘Oats are good! Oats are really good!’ Blackjack whinnied and pawed at the ground in excitement. I gave a soft chuckle and went to get some oats from the feed bins in the back. The feed was stored in a small room in the back that was pretty dark at night. I knew were everything was from memory any way so it didn't bother me. I scooped some oats into a bowl and turned to leave the room.

‘Oh hey boss,’ I heard Blackjack call after me. ‘A man came in and said he was a friend of yours. We told him you weren't here, but he said he’d wait for you.’

“Did he say who he was?” I asked. I wasn't too worried, there’s no place on earth safer for young demigods then camp half-blood. No monsters could get in, and not even a mortal could cross its borders. That only left gods and other half-bloods. If you didn't count Athena’s cabin, everyone was still pretty happy with me for helping to save the world last summer. 

“I’m surprised,” said a dark voice behind me. I was so startled that I dropped the bowl of oats. “I thought you’d, at least, be smart enough to remember me. Didn't I tell you to watch your back?”

“Ares.” I moved to turned and face him but he had me pinned to one of the support beams before I could.

“What do you want?” I demanded. I was so dead. Ares hated me, like fillet-me-alive-wear-my-skin-as-a-suit-and-feed-my-insides-to-wild-dogs hated me. He had me pinned to the beam with his weight so I couldn't even fight back.

“What do I want? Hmm, let me think. I’d like to kill you in the worst ways I can think of, although you seem to have some interesting ideas on that subject.” Crap, I forgot gods can read minds. “However, after the stunt you pulled last summer, even Zeus would have my head for ending your pathetic life. So I suppose I’ll have to move on to the next best thing.” I felt him shift as he leaned in close.

“If I can’t take your life,” he whispered. “I’ll take your freedom.”

‘Boss! Boss! He’s not your friend is he? You need help boss?’ Blackjack is a good friend and a great pegasus, but sometimes I forgot how naive he could be. Here I am, captured by the god of war himself, and Blackjack’s still trying to work around the fact that he’d been lied to.

Ares pulled out a dagger from his belt and held it up to my face. I could see it glinting in the dim lighting. There was something on the blade making the tip black. 

“This blade is covered in the poison of a very rare daimon found in deep Hades,” Ares said putting the tip of the blade to my side.

“I thought you said you weren't going to kill me?” This wasn't good. I needed help, fast.

“This isn't a poison that will kill you, as long as all the requirements are met. Besides you have the curse of Achilles. Unless you chose your side as your fatal spot, you’ll live.” And with that he shoved the knife into my side. 

He stepped back, and without him holding me up I crumbled to the ground. The pain was so intense I was blinded for a moment, but I needed to get it together if I was going to get out of this alive. Yeah, he hadn't hit my ‘Achilles heel’, but I wasn't sure if I could still bleed to death or not. I was sure someone from the camp would hear the alarmed neighing the pegasi were making. Someone had to come soon.

“The poison,” I gasped. “What are the requirements?”

Ares stepped closer to me. He leaned down and roughly grabbed a hand full of my hair, pulling my head back to look at him. 

“What’s the matter whelp? I told you, I’d get in a lot of trouble if you died. All I need to do is stake my claim. It’s not like you could st--” Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a loud ‘WHAMP’. Ares flew across the room and smashed through the back wall. I looked up to see Porkpie land next to me. 

‘Boss! Did you see? I kicked the bad man! Do I get oats too now?’

“Porkpie,” I gritted my teeth. “I need to get to the Big House, right now. Chiron will, ow, know what to do.” I managed to get to my feet and pull myself onto his back.

‘Ok boss! Then oats?’

“I will kill that damn pegasus!” Ares roared. He was getting up, which meant we needed to get out of there quick.

“Porkpie we need to go now!” I shouted. And with that we flew out of the barn. 

“Perseus Jackson! You will be mine!” I heard him shout after me. Porkpie flew as hard as he could, but it wasn’t fast enough. As we passed over the arena I heard something slice through the air. Only too late did I realize it was a volley of flaming spears and they were headed right for Porkpie. One spear hit his thigh while another hit his wing. The flames were spreading fast. I tried to put out the flames in his wings but his tail was on fire too. We were going down.

‘Boss, help me!’ Porkpie whinnied frantically. ‘Please boss. It hurts! I can’t stay in the air!’

“I’m sorry, Porkpie,” I whispered as we crashed into the ground 10 feet away from the singing campers at the campfire. The fall threw me off of Porkpie and I skidded to a stop in the dirt.

Everything was quiet for a moment. The campers stopped sing to see what was going on, but as soon as they realized they started rushing around in a frenzied panic. 

“SILENCE!!” I could hear Dionysus yell over the noise of the campers. Their voices instantly died.

“Porkpie,” I groaned. He wasn't moving and the fire was still burning his wings. It had even spread to his mane and back. His legs were bent at strange angles and his head was twisted unnaturally. 

“PORKPIE!” I screamed. And my world went black.


	2. Chapter 2

A scene started to come into focus and it wasn’t anywhere at camp that I’d ever seen. I’d had enough of these sorts of dreams to know that I was about to see something I wouldn’t like. I looked around and saw that I was standing in a really classy room. Like chandeliers 10ft wide, classy. I think Annabeth had once told me that this sort of decorating was known as baroque. I was standing off to the side and was about to step forward when I heard voices coming from behind a door on the opposite side of the room. 

The door suddenly burst open and a very angry Hera stormed in followed by Ares. “Mother, I tried to, but that damned pegasus ruined everything!”

“I gave you what should have been a very simple task,” Hera said, seething. Her back turned towards Ares. “I gave you the ability to sneak into that detestable camp without that bastard, Dionysus, sensing you. I gave you the poisoned dagger. Your job was so simple; I was tempted to say it was fool proof. Then you had to go and prove me wrong. That brat and his friend insulted me, the queen of the heavens, and the son I thought I could count on, one who claims to hate the boy more than I do, turns out to be completely incompetent!” 

“Mother, I did manage to stab him,” Ares said trying to stop his mother’s rant. “The poison is working its way through his body as we speak. All I need to do is finish the—”

“You really think it will be that easy,” Hera turned to face her son. “You think Dionysus will not be on guard. Any moment now Zeus will find out exactly what you did. I don’t even want to think about what Poseidon is going to do once he finds out.” Hera paused and regarded her son. “Although, with the poison in his blood, the council will have to pick someone to finish the deed. No doubt they’ll pick that brat, Apollo, to claim the boy. He was always on good terms with Poseidon. Or maybe—”

“I’m not afraid of that old blow hard uncle of mine, and I could easily over power that drunk, Dionysus,” Ares interrupted his mother. “That boy will be mine, and if I have to start a war to make sure I’m the one to have the boy, well I’d be very happy with that.”

“Yes well, we’ll soon have an emergency council meeting to discuss this very topic. After that, if your father’s punishment isn’t too severe, then you may do as you wish,” Hera stated coldly. “But if you so much as hint that I was a part of this, I’ll make sure that your punishment will be twice a cruel and three times as long!”

I hadn’t thought that the god of war was capable of feeling fear, but in that moment all the color drained from his face. The strained silence was broken when a horn sounded. 

“It’s time,” Hera said simply. She turned and left the room. Ares straitened himself up followed closely behind her. 

The scene changed again and this time I recognized where I was. It was the throne room on Mount Olympus. Everyone was in their respective thrones except for Dionysus, who was absent. My father was pacing in front of Zeus and angrier then I’d ever seen him. 

“This is unacceptable! Ares must be punished severely! I will not stand for anything less than the maximum penalty that can be given for his actions! If it were possible to kill a god, believe me brother, Ares would already be dead!” Yeah, Poseidon was pissed.

“Brother, please claim down,” implored Zeus. “What Ares has done is a very serious offense indeed. I can assure you he will be reprimanded for his actions. The extent of that punishment will be decided by the council—”

“That is not good enough! My son’s life is at stake! Ares still won’t tell us what he poisoned Percy with! If I ever find any of Ares’s children sailing on my seas, I will make sure they never breathe air again!” Poseidon roared. 

“Brother!” Oh great now Zeus was starting to get mad. “We will put Ares’s punishment to vote as soon as Dionysus gets here.”

The two brothers glared at each other for what felt like eons, but it was probably only a few seconds. 

“Poseidon,” Zeus sighed. “We cannot do anything for young Perseus until Dionysus returns with an update on his condition. Chiron is analyzing the poison now. The boy is still alive, that is the important thing at the moment. It would not reflect well on Olympus if a god killed the hero who saved us all.”

Poseidon seemed to consider Zeus’s words for a moment. Then he nodded and sat down in his throne to wait for Dionysus to arrive. I looked around at all the other gods. Every single one of them looked tense except for Hera who looked really smug. Hephaestus, Apollo, Hermes, and Artemis were all glaring at Ares, who glared right back at them. Even Aphrodite seemed angry with him. Zeus was warily watching Poseidon who was barely keeping his rage in check. Athena was watching the interaction between Zeus and Poseidon. Demeter didn’t seem to care at all. 

Suddenly the door burst open and Dionysus stormed in. He looked livid. I’ve seen him mad before and I thought he was scary then, but now he was downright terrifying. He scanned the room and locked on Ares.

“What in Hades did you think you were going to do to him!? Chiron analyzed the poison! You know what is necessary for the boy to live! And while he was under my protection no less!” Dionysus yelled across the room. Vines started creeping up Ares throne. 

“Well, well, well. I didn’t know that an old drunk like you cared so much,” Ares said smirking and ignoring the vines that were now curling around his legs. “That is so touching.”

“That camp is my responsibility, for now. Anything that goes on there reflects on me,” Dionysus said taking a breath, and the vines receded. He seemed to be calming down a bit but his eyes still held that purple flame that let me know he was far from calm. The other gods looked taken aback; even Demeter was paying attention now. 

“Dionysus,” came Zeus’s voice. “If you would share your findings with the rest of us.”

“Of course father,” Dionysus sighed. “The poison appears to be that of the Chthonic Serpent. I’m sure you’re all aware of what that means.”

The other gods were immediately in an uproar, but their voices were fading as darkness crept over me again. 

I opened my eyes. I was in the infirmary, wrapped up in bandages. I shifted to sit up only to have pain race up my side. I groaned and tried to relax. I heard a ‘clip-clop’ noise as Chiron came into my line of vision.

“Percy,” Chiron said softly. “How are you feeling?”

I opened my mouth to answer him but my throat was so dry only a raspy sound came out. 

“Hold on. I’ll get you some water.” He went out of the curtained off area that I was in and come back a half a minute later with a cup of water. “Mr.D had to go to an emergency council meeting on Olympus, so I’m in charge of the camp for now. I need to go oversee the training but if you need anything Will Solace will take care of it.” And with that, Chiron left. 

I looked over to see Will sitting in a chair, tuning his guitar. He was now the head of Apollo’s cabin seeing as Michael Yew died last year in the battle. I still regret not being able to find his body.

“Hey Will,” I said. “Do you know what I was poisoned with?”

Will looked up from his guitar. “No. Mr.D and Chiron seem to know what it is though, so I’m sure you’ll be fine.” He smiled reassuringly at me. 

“Did they mention a treatment for the poison?” I asked.

Will looked thoughtfully for a second. “No. They just said to keep you comfortable until Mr.D gets back.”

“Ok,” I said yawning.

“Just try to get some rest,” said Will with a small smile as he went back to tuning his guitar. My vision darkened and I was asleep again.

When I woke up it was dark except for the light coming from outside the curtain divider. My head was still fuzzy, but as I started to become more awake I heard voices. Someone was not happy.

“This is absurd,” I recognized Dionysus’s voice. “Why, of all the gods, did Zeus curse me with this?! It wasn’t bad enough to send me to this wretched camp for 50 years, now I’m going to be stuck with that hero brat for eternity.” He spat out the word hero like it was the most disgusting thing in the world.

“Well it makes sense,” said Chiron. “You are the god of debauchery.” That caught my attention. Debauchery had been one our vocabulary words in English class last semester. I think it means excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures, or something like that. 

“In any case the act needs to be done soon,” Chiron went on. “I don’t like the idea any more then you do, but he’s already been exposed to the poison for over a day. If you don’t claim him soon he won’t last the week.”

I heard Dionysus sigh, and with that he pulled back the curtain.

“Well, Jorgensen, I see you’re finally awake,” he said standing over my bed. “I guess I should get this over with.” And with that, he moved to grab my arm. I had a feeling my night was about to take a horrible, life changing, turn for the worse.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains rape of a minor.

Dionysus reached down and grabbed my arm. He forcefully yanked me out of the bed so that I was standing next him. 

“Be careful,” Chiron warned. “He’s weak from the poison, and he still doesn’t know what needs to be done.”

“And I plan to rectify that right now,” said the clearly annoyed god of wine. I blinked and suddenly I was somewhere else. It was a hotel room, and an expensive one by the looks of it. I recognized it. This was the very room I’d slept in during the battle to defend Olympus. We were in one of the top suites of the Plaza Hotel, and it was just me and Mr.D.

“What are we doing here?” I asked as Mr.D pulled me across the room. 

He steered me over to the canopy bed and sat me on the edge, and then pulled up a chair directly across from me. He snapped his fingers and suddenly his track suit was replaced by a leopard print robe. I also noticed that his round stomach seemed to have completely disappeared. 

“I’ll be brief,” Mr.D said with a sigh. “Ares poisoned you with the venom of –”

“The Chthonic Serpent, yeah I know that already,” I said impatiently. “I also know that Hera help Ares sneak into the camp. Can we please just skip to the part where you tell me what I need to do so the poison doesn’t kill me?!”

Mr.D studied me for a second. “So Hera was in on this too? No wonder she fought to reduce Ares’s sentence.”

“What was his punishment?” I asked.

“That’s not important right now,” Mr.D snapped at me. “So you know what you were poisoned with, but do you know what this means?” 

I shook my head.

“I thought not,” Mr.D said leaning back in his chair. “Chthonic spirits are the embodiment of envy, lust, sensuality, and deceit. They are also fertility spirits. When the poison is added to soil it becomes something like a super-fertilizer. However, if it introduced to human blood, especially the blood of a demigod, it will overpower and kill them. There is only one way to save you at this point. You need to be bound to a god.”

“Bound?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, that unless you are claimed by a god, you will die,” He said sternly. “And the council, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that I should be the one to claim you. However, I do need your permission; so you can either die a rather painful death within the next few days, or become immortal and stand beside me for eternity.” 

I was sure I’d misheard him. Those couldn’t be the only options I had. I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t really want to live forever either. I really didn’t want to die though. I had so much I still wanted to do. Not to mention I couldn’t leave my mom like this, it would break her heart. I started to think about the first time I had been offered immortality. The only reason I had turned that down was because I wanted to be with Annabeth, but she had dumped me. The more I thought about it the more I realized I didn’t have a reason to turn down immortality. 

“Ok,” I said taking a deep breath. “I don’t want to die so, whatever we need to do; I guess I’m ok with it.”

“Very well,” said Mr.D as he got up and walked over to me. He grabbed my hand and put something into it. “Here take this.”

I looked down and saw that he had put a grape in my hand. “Why?” I asked.

“Just something to make it easier,” he said taking a step back. I popped the grape into my mouth and bit down. The taste was really sour, like really strong wine. As I swallowed I felt a strange heat blossom in my stomach. 

“What was that?” I asked.

“About two glasses of wine concentrated into a single grape,” He said nonchalantly. “It’ll help loosen you up and relax.”

That’s when I felt vines wrap around my wrists. 

“Wait. What’s going on?” I could feel myself start to panic. “What are you doing?”

Mr.D didn’t answer. He simply stood there and watched as the vines pulled my arms above my head and other vines started to drag me across the bed towards the head board. 

“Stop! Please! What does this have to do with the poison?”

“I told you,” Mr.D said. He snapped his fingers and suddenly I was laying naked, spread across the bed. The vines constricted tighter around my wrist. “I need to claim you. It’s the only thing that can save your life.”

I wanted to fight more but I started to feel my face heat up and I got really light headed. I looked up at Mr.D as he started to untie his robe. As I watched it fall away I noticed his stomach was very flat for someone who, just this afternoon, had a beer belly. I had to admit he had the body that I want to have when I get older. I didn’t know if that last thought was me or the wine but it would make sense that he was built like a Greek god. After all, he was one. 

“The gods can look anyway we want to,” said Dionysus smirking. Oh right, they can read minds, too. I had forgotten about that, again. 

“I’m glad you seem to like what you see,” he said smugly as he crawled over me until our faces were level. “That will make this much easier.” Our bodies were so close now I could fell his body heat wash over me. His hand moved from my waist to my thigh. I felt a heat in my groin and knew I had an erection coming on.

“So when you say claim…?” I asked, hesitantly.

“Why, Percy, are you really so slow that you haven’t figured it out yet,” he said as vines wrapped around my stiffening cock. I moaned as the vines alternated between contracting and then loosening. Dionysus sat back to observe his handy work.

“You,” I panted. “You called me Percy.” I felt the vines around my legs start to pull my knees towards my shoulders. A sharp pain shot up my side from the pressure that was now on my stab wound. I cried out and tightly shut my eyes panting through the pain. 

Dionysus face flickered briefly with concern before quickly returning to a smirk. “That wound is proving to be troublesome, isn’t it? Well, we can’t have that.” His hand went over my side where the knife had gone in. I felt a vague tingling sensation and realized he had just numbed the wound. 

“Wait,” I managed to gasp out. “We can’t do this. We’re both guys. And you don’t even like me.”

“You don’t know anything about ancient Greeks do you,” Dionysus said nonchalantly. “I assure you, this is nothing new to me.” His eyes raked over my body. I guess I was an interesting site with my knees being held by my head and my now fully erect shaft wrapped in vines. “And no, I’m not particularly fond of you. Although since I’m stuck with you for eternity, who knows, maybe you’ll grow on me.”

I’ll admit I didn’t hear much of what he had said. I could feel a pressure building in my groin that, I knew from *ahem* masturbating, signaled an impending orgasm. 

“Oh no,” Dionysus said in a way that I could actually hear a smirk in his voice. “We can’t have you finish before we’ve even really begun.” As he said that the vines around my cock constricted around the base and wrapped around my balls. 

“I suppose now is as good a time as ever to move on to the main event.” He leaned back over me one of his hands disappearing behind my legs where I couldn’t see what he was doing. 

“This might be uncomfortable.” His grin got a little wider as he said that, though I wouldn’t have been able to tell if his face hadn’t been so close to mine. My head was in a haze from the near orgasm and the wine, but my focus was suddenly on my ass as I felt a finger slide inside me. I groaned. The finger felt slick and I vaguely smelled grapes. Dionysus muttered something an ancient Greek. As soon as he finished I felt something cool coat my insides. 

“Stop,” I begged trying to wriggle out of his grasp. “I don’t want this. Please there has to be another way. I’ll do anything, but please, not this.”

If Dionysus heard me he didn’t show it. Instead he added another finger and started a scissoring motion as his other hand grabbed my waist to keep me still. 

“If you don’t relax I’m going to empty the entire mini-bar down your throat,” Dionysus threatened as he shoved a third finger into me. He started to pump them in and out as my body stretched to try to adjust. 

“Please,” tears started to sting my eyes. “Don’t do this. I –Ahh.” I screamed out as Dionysus’s fingers brushed something inside me. As soon as they did the invading digits disappeared.

Dionysus shifted my hips over his and for the first time I really looked at his crotch. To put it mildly, he was huge. That wasn’t going to fit in me, no way in Hades. 

“Just one of the perks of being a god,” Dionysus chuckled. He looked me in the eyes and I saw those familiar purple flames. “Relax. This is going to hurt much worse if you don’t.” And with that he pushed into me. 

Pain. That’s really the only way to describe how I was feeling. Granted, it wasn’t as bad as when I’d held up the sky, but it was enough to make a scream catch in my throat so that when I opened my mouth I couldn’t even make a sound. Dionysus was still, waiting for my body to relax and adjust to him inside me. After a few moments he started to thrust his hips forward. 

The first few thrust seemed to just make the pain more intense, his girth stretching me more then I’d ever thought possible. I felt a few silent tears escape from my eyes. He shifted his hips and thrust again, this time hitting that spot that made me moan. As soon as he heard that he started driving into me harder, hitting that spot every time. I was moaning and trying to grind my hips into his. I’d never felt such intense pleasure and at the same time so ashamed of myself. 

I felt the vines loosen from around my cock and balls. I closed my eyes as another orgasm built inside me, hoping that this one wouldn’t be stopped like the last one. 

“Percy,” I heard Dionysus call me through clenched teeth. “Look at me.” He punctuated ever word with a hard thrust. My eyes snapped opened, I could feel my head start to spin. 

I let out a scream as my orgasm ripped through me, causing me to arch my back. My muscles clenched around Dionysus, and with a few quick thrust he groaned as I felt him come deep inside me. I let out another scream as I felt something burn around my left thigh. I looked at my still bound leg and saw what looked like a tattoo of a vine circling my thigh.

I was exhausted, but Dionysus was hardly even winded. He regarded me for a moment with an unreadable expression. 

“It is done,” he said simply. “You need to rest now.” As soon as he said this my world went black.


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was a searing headache. I guess I had my low alcohol tolerance to thank for that. The second thing I noticed was I was in my bunk at camp and I was clean. No blood, no sweat, and no other bodily fluids. I was wearing my jeans but my camp T-shirt was on one of the empty bunks with a hole in the side and blood smeared all over it. 

Did last night really happen? Of course it did, that’s why I had a head ache. I started to shift and felt a throbbing pain in my backside. Oh gods, I had had sex with Dionysus. Well actually he had tied me up and then ignored me when I had begged him to stop. I couldn’t help feeling ashamed that I had even liked it in the end. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I was bound to him forever!

I shakily stood up and went to the window. It was still dark outside. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was 4:30 in the morning. Everyone else was probably still a sleep. I grabbed a clean T-shirt and stepped outside. Everything was quiet and in seconds I was running as fast as I could to the stables. 

At that moment I knew exactly what I had to do. I had to get as far away from Dionysus as I could. I would hop on Blackjack and have him fly north as far as he could. Hopefully we’d be out of the city by the time he got tired. If the gods stayed in America I would run to Canada, but I truly doubted that there was any place on earth were he couldn’t fallow me, if he wanted to, that is. He was never one to hide his hatred for me. It wasn’t really a secret that when he looked at me all he saw was his loathing for Theseus. 

I ran inside the stables and straight to Blackjacks stall only to find him sleeping. 

“Blackjack,” I called out, breaking the silence. “Wake up we need to go.”

Blackjack stirred and lifted his head. He yawned and soon his eyes came to focus on me. 

‘Go away boss,’ He said glaring at me, which surprised me because I didn’t think horses could glare. ‘You got Porkpie killed. I trusted you boss, after everything Luke and those monsters put me through on his boat, but you’re no different!’

“Blackjack, please,” I already felt bad enough about my situation and now I found out that Porkpie is dead because of me. Porkpie and I had never really been close but he had come through for me and my friends quite a few times. “I didn’t mean for Porkpie to get hurt like that. Believe me if I could go back to that night and stop the whole thing from happening I would in a heartbeat. I would never hurt you or any of the pegasi. Please, Blackjack, we need to leave.” I was practically begging now. 

‘Sorry boss,’ Blackjack said, turning his head away from me. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’

I won’t say that that didn’t hurt a little. I walked to the entrance of the stables before I looked back at Blackjack. If he wouldn’t help me then it was a safe bet that the other pegasi wouldn’t either. I started running for the border of camp. I didn’t really know what to do now. It was too far to run all the way home to my mom, and I couldn’t get a cab seeing as I didn’t have any money with me. I cursed under my breath, why hadn’t I grabbed some before I ran from the cabin. 

I was so focused on getting out of camp that a root caught me by surprise as I tripped over it, head first. I fell hard. My forehead hitting a small rock that was sticking up out of the ground. I pushed myself up and tried to take step forward only to find that my leg wouldn’t move. I looked down and saw why. Grapevines. 

“And where do you think you’re going?”

I turned and saw Dionysus leaning against an elm tree. He was wearing white tiger striped pajamas with a bunch of grapes embroidered on the collar.

“Let me go,” I demanded an edge of panic in my voice. 

“No,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine. “As you were told the first day you arrived, you cannot leave camp without permission from either Chiron or myself.”

“I’m leaving,” I said through grit teeth. “You can drag me back to camp, but as soon as you let go I’ll run again.” I started to pull at my leg harder. “You… after what you did… I never want to see you again!” As I shouted the last part the vines around my ankle started to move up my leg. Dionysus straightened up and the elm tree that he had been leaning on transformed into a dryad and fled.

“As I recall,” Dionysus mused. “You seemed to enjoy yourself last night.”

I wanted to punch him in his smug face. “I didn’t want that!” my voice becoming hysterical. “You forced me! I begged you to stop!”

“Believe me,” Dionysus’s gaze became more intense. “I am not happy about this arrangement either. However, you did agree to this.”

“You never told me that ‘claim’ was code for fucking me!” I screamed at him. His eyes grew hard and cold. I saw images of a mother going mad and boiling her infant child. I saw Cyclopes ripping apart a small child as pomegranate trees sprang from the ground were the blood fell. And then the images were gone. Dionysus regarded me coldly, a purple fire in his eyes.

“I am your master now,” he said sternly. “You will do well to remember that.” He began to walk towards me until he was within an arm’s reach. He raised his hands and brushed his fingers against the cut on my forehead. “After all, we are going to be together for a long time.” He brought his fingers in front of my face so that I could see the blood he’d wiped off my forehead, except instead of blood, it was golden Ichor. 

Seeing the Ichor just made me angrier. I didn’t want to be stuck with this jerk forever. 

“Screw you,” I said through gritted teeth.

“You will regret that, Jorgenson,” He said dangerously. That pushed me over the edge.

“My name is Percy Jackson, you son of a bitch!” I screamed. I had lost all the control I had left. “You’re still pretending you don’t know my name! You condescending prick! After what you did to me! You fucking r-raped me!” I choked on the word ‘raped’. Just admitting that that was what had happened was almost too much. 

Dionysus’s face seemed to twist with rage. The vines continued to creep up my body, wrapping around my neck. I could feel the vines tighten to apply pressure but not enough to cut off my air supply entirely. 

“Listen well, Percy Jackson,” He spat out my name like it was a vile insult. “You belong to me, and I can treat you how ever I want. I can call you whatever I want. And though you are now immortal, that does not mean that I can’t drive you to the point where you will beg me to end your miserable life only to be denied.” As he said this his hand griped my thigh, over the spot where the tattoo that had appeared last night was. I felt a fire shoot up my spine as if every nerve ending in my body were on fire. I vaguely felt a scream escape but there was so much pain I couldn’t tell if that was the case. And then suddenly the pain was gone. As the haze of pain receded, and I came back to my senses, I realized I had crumbled to the ground. My vision was blurred by unshed tears, and I couldn’t help the fear that rose in my chest as Dionysus crouched down beside me. If I didn’t know any better I’d almost swear he looked concerned.

“Percy,” he said softly. “You should know better than to anger a god.”

“What did you just do to me?” I couldn’t help the tremors that ran through my body, still recovering from what had just happened.

“The mark on your leg gives me sway over your physical feelings,” he said never taking his eyes off my face. “I can elicit feelings that range from pleasure to pain, even intense fatigue or boundless energy if I feel it is warranted. If you don’t want to feel that pain again then you need to refrain from speaking to me like that in the future. I am your master now, and you will treat me with the respect that is demanded of someone in your position. Do you understand?”

I nodded quickly, I didn't want to risk making him angry by hesitating. In reality my brain was still trying to comprehend everything he had just said.

“Good, now there are a few things that need to be addressed before I send you back to your cabin,” Dionysus said standing up and walking over to a throne of grapevines that had just grown out of the ground. I felt vines moving under me as they rose to form a bench, however, some of the vines remained wrapped around my waist to keep me seated. “As you realize I have claimed you.” He paused, studying my face that I was trying to keep blank. “This means that any other claim another god had over you is, for the most part, void. Meaning that while you will always be a son of Poseidon, your triumphs and failure will no longer be attributed to him. Instead your actions will represent me.”

“The hell I will,” my fear melting away and being replaced by anger again. “I will always fight for Poseidon. I’m loyal to my father and I don’t care about whatever claim you think you have over my –” Dionysus raised his hand and suddenly my voice no longer worked. 

“If you doubt my words then feel free to contact your father and ask him yourself,” Dionysus said with a shrug. “However, since I have claimed you, you will need to pack your belongings and be moved into my cabin by lights out tonight.”

As soon as he finished saying this the vines holding me down started to fall away. Dionysus stood and began to walk back to camp without saying another word. I sat there and waited until I knew he was gone, letting everything he had said really sink in. I’m not sure how long I sat there but as the sun started to appear on the horizon I got up and made my way back to camp, my head hung in defeat the whole way.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some noncon in this chapter (kissing and groping)

As I walked back into the cabin area the sun was rising, so, of course, Apollo’s cabin was already up and getting their cabin ready for the daily inspection. Most of them looked shocked as they watched me walk by, and for a second I felt a cold dread blossom in my chest. Did they know about what happened between me and Dionysus? Will Solace turned and said something to one of his brothers, then he started to jog towards me. I felt the panic become stronger. Why was he coming over here unless… he knew.

“Percy,” Will smiled as he came to a stop in front of me. “You had me worried. When Mr.D came back and said that he needed to talk to you… man, I’ve never seen him look so pissed. I’m just glad that whatever he did worked. I mean, whatever you were poisoned with really had me stumped. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Do you mind if I ask what he used to heal you?”

I took a deep breath. Of course he didn’t know. I was just being paranoid. Still, I wasn’t going to tell him what Dionysus had done to ‘make me better’.

“Um, I don’t really know what he did,” I lied. “He probably used some sort of god trick to fix me up.” I said quickly seeing a look of skepticism on his face. He still didn’t look like he was buying it, but he just nodded. 

“Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t have expected you to know,” Will said. I tried not to look insulted at the insinuation that I was a moron when it came to medical stuff. I mean, I was, but it still stung. “I only meant that, well, you were barely conscious. He probably healed you up while you were asleep,” He added quickly. If only he knew how much I wished I’d been unconscious for Dionysus’s brand of ‘healing’.

“Yeah,” I said. “Anyway, I feel completely better now. I don’t even have the stab wound anymore.”

“Well that’s a relief. Although, I would like to do a follow up physical on you, if that’s ok with you?” Will said excitedly, as if there was nothing he’d rather do with his day then give me a medical once over. 

“Um, I don’t know if that’s necessary. I’m really busy, training and all that,” I said quickly. The last thing I want is for him to find my new tattoo and start asking questions. “I really should get back to my cabin and clean it up for inspection.” And with that, I turned and quickly walked to Poseidon’s cabin. 

I closed the door tightly behind me and made my way over to my bunk. I gave a heavy sigh; I needed to get my head on straight. The first thing I needed to do was to find out if Dionysus was telling the truth. I needed to talk to my dad. 

I looked around for drachmas to through into the salt water fountain. There weren’t any in my bag and I briefly thought about asking Annabeth if I could barrow one, but then I remembered that we aren’t on speaking terms. I slumped back down onto my bed while stuffing my hands into my jean’s pockets. How was I supposed to talk to my dad now? I paused when I felt my fingers brush something smooth and round at the bottom of my left pocket. I pulled it out to get a better look at it.

As the early morning light hit it I saw that it was a drachma. I just stared at it for a good minute trying to figure out where it had come from. I know my pockets were empty when I woke up this morning and I definitely didn’t put it there, so where did it come from? I quickly decided that I didn’t really care about that, as long as I could finally get some answers. 

“O goddess, accept my offering,” I said as I tossed the drachma into fountain. “Poseidon’s palace.”

An image started to shimmer into focus. As it got clearer I saw that it was the palace courtyard. It looked empty except for one merman. He had green skin, two tails, his black hair tied in a pony tail, and his armor was studded with pearls. It took me a second to place him. He was my brother, Triton. Of all the people to answer my Iris message it had to be him. 

“Well if it isn’t my little brother, Perseus Jackson,” Triton said with a sneer. “To what do I own the pleasure of having a chat with the savior of Olympus?”

“Is dad… er... our father there?” I asked. For whatever reason he really doesn’t seem to like me, and to be honest I wasn’t too fond of him either.

“No, I’m afraid he’s busy,” he said. “But I can take a message. Maybe he’ll be able to find time to get back to you this century. We do have a palace to rebuild after all.”

“Just tell him that I need to talk to him,” I said. “The sooner the better.”

“Yes I’ll be sure to put a rush on that,” he said smugly. “Although, I suppose you’ll be quite busy too, what with your new situation and all.”

“What do you know about it?” I demanded. The last thing I wanted was to prolong this conversation but maybe he might be able to tell me something that I didn’t know.

“You’re bound to Lord Dionysus now,” his smile getting bigger. “Don’t look so shocked, brother; word travels fast, even down here. I thought father was going to cause an earthquake so strong it would tear the earth a new one. Or perhaps send a hurricane even stronger then Andrew straight into Houston. Ares does like to hang out in Texas on occasion, though he isn’t there now. His punishment has made sure of that.”

“His punishment?” I hadn’t even thought of Ares’s punishment. “You know where he is?”

Triton barked out a laugh. “That arrogant jackass is working his ass off in the underworld, and Lord Hades has promised to be a brutal task master. He should be down there for the next 50 years, unless he’s dumb enough to eat the food. Then we might never have to see his ugly face again. Wouldn’t that be nice?” 

I let the question hang there. 50 years without having to worry about Ares was defiantly a nice thought, except after that I’d have the rest of eternity to watch my back.

“Anyway, I assume you wanted to ask our father if what Lord Dionysus told you was true,” he said his smug smile back in place. “It was. Everything he told you. You answer to him now not our father.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. I felt sick and I guess it showed.

“Don’t look so depressed,” Triton said in a slightly more serious tone. “Father hasn’t disowned you, far from it. He still recognizes you as his son, it’s just that your loyalty to Lord Dionysus now takes priority over all else.”

“I’ll will always have more loyalty to Poseidon then I will ever have for that drunk son of a—”

“You will learn your place!” The anger in Triton’s voice caused the whole fountain to shake. “If your stubborn behavior brings shame to the name of Poseidon then you will be striped of the abilities he’s given you and you will be shunned. Your new role comes with certain expectations. The other gods are watching you very closely waiting for you to mess up, so get your act together.” He slashed through the air and the scene in the fountain was gone. 

I just sat there trying to make sense of what had just happened. I was still my father’s son, but I had to represent Dionysus now or he would disown me. My body seemed to be on auto-pilot as I collected all my belongings so I could start packing. I was still getting my things together by the time Katie Gardener came in for inspection. Needless to say I failed but she said that considering my health she was going to give me higher marks then Ares cabin so I wouldn’t have to do dishes. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if those slobs failed yet again.

I went through the rest of the morning in a blurry haze. Athena’s cabin still wouldn’t come near me but they weren’t glaring anymore. I spent most of the day avoiding everyone that I could. Of course the few people I couldn’t avoid would ask if I was ok and give me piteous glances. Chiron was the worse. I knew that he knew exactly what had happened between me and Dionysus, but every time I saw him he’d look at me as if trying to hide his guilt. He couldn’t even get within three feet of me without giving me a sad look before pretending that something important had just caught his attention he needed to trot off and fix it immediately.

At lunch I sat at Poseidon’s table watching the other campers laughing and talking with each other. I didn’t have an appetite so I just poked at my spaghetti with my fork. I glanced up at the head table Dionysus and Chiron seemed to be having a rapid discussion in ancient Greek but I was too far to really hear what they were saying anyway. I glanced back along the rest of the tables to Dionysus’s table were Pollux was sitting alone. I guess I should really talk to him about me moving in. That is not a conversation I wanted to have. 

Dionysus stood up and walked pass my table without even a glance at me. He walked over to Pollux and said something I couldn’t hear. Pollux nodded and stood, following Dionysus out. I waited another five minutes before leaving my untouched food and heading back outside. I decided I’d skip volleyball and fire-work making and head out to the beach to clear my head. I walked up to the edge of the water and watched the waves push the sea foam up onto the beach.

“Father,” I called out at the ocean. “Please, I need to talk to you.” I stood there and waited. When nothing happened I sat down on the sand. “Fine. I’ll just wait then.”

I sat there watching the tide come in and the waves roll back out. I let my mind wander as I listened to the rumble of the waves. I don’t know how long I had been sitting there until I saw the sun sinking behind the horizon. We had capture the flag tonight so I supposed I should head back. 

“If you’re waiting for an answer from Poseidon, you should know by now that he tends to respond when it’s convenient for him. Not when you would like an answer. Annoying isn’t it?” came a woman’s voice from behind me. 

I turned around at see who it was. The woman had long dark brown hair and cold reddish brown eyes. She was wearing jeans, a T-shirt that said ‘Spring break Tehran 2010’, and from her ears dangled golden apples.

“Who are you?” I asked hesitantly. She could be a goddess so I had to be careful not to offend. “I haven’t seen you at camp before.”

“No, children aren’t any fun to pick on. They just don’t have a high enough standing in society,” said the mystery woman as she sat down on the sand next to me. “As for who I am, well, I’ll give you some hints. Ares is my brother, some say it was my actions that started the Trojan War, and I bring discord, strife, and chaos where ever I go.”

I paused to think. Then it hit me. The only goddess that all the clues could apply to was…

“Eris.”

“Very good,” she said gleefully. “You’re just as smart as they say.”

“Um excused me, Lady Eris,” I said. I had to be careful when dealing with her or I’d be in for a world of hurt. “Is there something you want to talk to me about?”

She tipped her head to the side has if she was thinking hard about something. “Humm… No can’t say there’s anything I want to talk about.” Then in a flash she had me pinned on the sand.

“Hey! What are you doing?” I asked panicking, her face only centimeters from mine as she held me down with the kind of strength that a woman her size shouldn’t have.

“Quiet boy,” she spat out, her eyes flashing a dangerous red. “If you want to walk away from this you will shut your mouth and stay still.”

Her mouth descended on mine cutting off any possibility of protest. I felt her tongue against my lips seeking entrance. I tried to shake her off but she wouldn’t budge. She grabbed my wrists and started moving my hands above my head. Once she had both of my wrist held down by her left hand she used her now free right one to land a hard punch to my ribs. I gasped which gave her the opening she was looking for. 

I clenched my eyes shut, trying to ignore her tongue moving around my mouth. I had kissed Annabeth when we were dating but it was never anything like this. The most intimate kiss Annabeth and I had shared was the kiss under the lake after the war. The other times we had kissed they were no more than quick pecks on the check, or I’d try to kiss her on the lips and she’d turn away feeling guilty about Luke. I felt the pressure on my lips lessen as Eris sat up to straddle my hips. 

“Enjoying the show, Lord Dionysus?” Eris said a huge smirk on her face. My mind went blank before rebooting with a mantra of ‘oh no, oh no, oh no’. I felt my blood run cold and my stomach drop. If Dionysus saw what had just happened would he be angry? I tilted my head back to look at him. I only needed to glance at him to know he was furious.

“Eris,” he said coldly, through gritted teeth. “Leave. Now.” 

With a giggle Eris disappeared with a ‘pop’, leaving me alone with a very angry Dionysus. I sat up and turned to look at him.

“Mr.D?” I asked noting the angry fire in his eyes. “I can explain—”

“Silence,” Dionysus said dangerously. He started to move toward me. I scrambled back trying to keep as much distance between us as I could. I thought that if I could just tell him what had happened he would understand, but judging by the look on his face, he wasn’t in the mood to stop and listen to what I had to say. My retreat was stopped when a grape vine shot out of the sand and wrapped around my neck. Dionysus grabbed the other end of the vine and yanked me face first into the sand. I pushed myself off of the ground and looked up at his silhouette now looming over me.

“Apparently our little talk this morning wasn’t enough to get you to behave,” Dionysus growled out. “I suppose I’ll just have to teach you some respect.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!!!! this chapter contains violence and rape. If you don't feel comfortable reading things of that nature in detail I will have a recap in the notes at the end. This is an important chapter to the story but I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable just so they can stay in the loop. As I said, there will be a recap in the notes at the end.

I struggled for breath as Dionysus dragged me behind him. The grape vine still wrapped around my neck while the other end was firmly grasped in his hand as he stormed off the beach. We were heading back toward camp where I knew everyone would be gathered for dinner.

“Mr.D…Please,” I gasped out. “No… Let me… go”

Dionysus shot me a glare over his shoulder and then promptly turned away again. I first I thought maybe he was acknowledging my pleas, that is until I felt a sharp pain, like needles, stab into my neck. The sadistic bastard had made the vine sprout thorns!

We were on the edge of camp and soon everyone would see me like this. I dug my feet into the dirt and pulled back on the vine. This turned out to be a huge mistake. The thorns pressed deeper into my skin causing small rivets of blood to trickle down my neck. At the same time I was tugged forward and crashed face first into the forest floor. Through it all Dionysus’s gait hadn’t been interrupted in the slightest. 

He didn’t even slow down to let me get back on my feet, perfectly content with dragging my body on the ground behind him. I scrambled on the ground, reaching out for anything to grab on to. I saw a root within reach but as soon as my fingers brushed over the exposed bark it transformed into a dryad and quick ran farther into the woods. 

At the edge of the forest Dionysus stopped and turned to look at me. With a hard yank he had me back on my feet. My shirt was dirty with small tares in it and my arms were covered in small cuts and scrapes that were smeared gold with the Ichor that was welling up from beneath my skin. He brought his free hand up to grasp the vine in a spot that was close to my neck so I couldn’t back away from him. His grip was so tight his knuckles were turning white but that didn’t seem to bother him. 

“If you say one word as we pass through camp I will tether you to a post just beyond the border of camp, and summon every monster in the tri-state area. I will watch as they rip you to shreds and I will keep you conscious for every agonizing second. If you utter even the start of a syllable, you will spend an entire week getting maimed in every conceivable manner."

Before I could answer him we were moving again. I kept my head down trying not to make eye contact with the campers that we passed on our way to the big house. I could hear their gasps of surprise; a few even seemed to start towards us as if to help but one look at Dionysus and they quickly redirected themselves.

“Percy!” Annabeth’s alarmed voice called from behind me. I turned to look back at her with a pleading look on my face. If anyone could think of a way to get me out of this it would be her. As soon as our eyes meet I felt a strong tug on my makeshift leash that caused me to look straight ahead again. 

We approached the big house just as Chiron trotted up to us. His face etched in concern while his tail swished nervously. 

“Mr.D,” he said carefully. “Don’t you think you might be taking this a bit far?”

“Chiron,” Dionysus said dangerously. “Do you presume to tell me how to treat what, by all rights, is mine?”

“Of course not,” Chiron said hurriedly as he took a few steps back from us. “It’s just that he hasn’t even been bound to you for a full 24 hours. Perhaps you might consider giving him time to adjust to his new status.”

“It is my right to treat him how ever I see fit. And right now, I think he deserves to be led around like the dog he is.” And with that Dionysus made his way up the porch steps and into the house with me following close behind him. 

He led me through the first floor back towards the kitchen. As we came to the back wall he snapped his fingers and a door began to appear in a blank section of the wall between a gap in the cabinets. He pushed open the newly visible door and threw me into the room.

I landed on the hard stone tiles that covered the floor. I lifted my head to get an idea of where I was. The room looked like a wine cellar with wooden columns covered in grape vines. On one side of the room was a large plasma TV that was placed above a very full wine rack. The furniture that was placed in front of it looked like the type of designs you might find in India. The wall on the other side of the room was lined with arcade games ranging from Dig Dug to a Silent Hill game. 

I looked at the back of the room and saw a king sized canopy bed that was covered by a purple comforter. The bed was on top of a large round rug that had orange and black tiger stripes. I couldn’t help but think that it looked a lot more comfortable then the bunks in the cabins. 

My attention was brought back to Dionysus when I heard the door slam shut. I looked back just in time to watch it disappear back into the wall. I was trapped in Dionysus’s room and by the still very angry look on his face, I was in trouble. I scrambled to my feet and started to back away from him. He watched me for a few moments, that purple fire in his eyes getting angrier with every second. He lifted his left hand and with a flick of his wrist, sent me flying across the room. 

My back collided with the wall above the bed, knocking the wind out of me, before gravity made me collapse, face first, onto the purple comforter. I gasped for air as I pulled myself up to my hands and knees. I lifted my head up looked to were Dionysus was but when I looked he wasn’t there. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, but before I could turn towards it I felt a hand grab the color of my shirt and throw me onto my back. Vines shot over the sides of the bed and started tearing my clothes to shreds. As soon as every scrap of cloth was gone the vines wrapped around me and flipped me onto my hands and knees. I tried to kick and struggle but the vines were beyond persistent. When I was in position vines wrapped around my neck, arms, and waist making sure I couldn’t move. More vines wrapped around my calves and pulling my legs apart. I felt movement behind me on the bed. I turned to see what Dionysus was doing behind me only to find that he was completely naked.

“I am your master,” Dionysus hissed as his hand griped my hips hard enough to bruise. “You will learn that your place will forever be beneath me.” As he spoke the last word he thrust into me, hard. 

I cried out, tears immediately forming in my eyes. I felt my unprepared hole stretch and tear as he pounded into me. His thrusts were rough, never pausing to give me time to adjust. Tears began to steam down my face as I continued to scream, this was so much worse than last time. At least last time my senses had been dulled by alcohol and, as much as I hate to admit it, I had felt pleasure eventually.

“Cry out all you like, hero,” hate dripping from every word. “No one’s coming to save scum like you.”

“Mr.D… Please,” I gasped out through the pain. “Stop… please… Diony—Aah” My pleads turned into a scream as he thrust into me even harder. I felt liquid seep down my leg that I could only assume was blood. I had to think of some way to get him to come back to his senses or this was just going to get worse. I only knew one thing that he really cared about that might distract him long enough to bring him back to reality.

“Think of Ariadne!” I cried out. All the air in my lungs devoted to voicing what I knew was a last ditch effort. I felt him stop his movements as his hand pulled back on my hair roughly, forcing my head up. The vines wrapped around my neck tightened so much that they cut off my air.

“You have no right to speak her name!” Dionysus boomed. “Not after the way you treated her Theseus!”

“But I’m not Theseus,” I whispered weakly, with what little air I had left. My throat was so sore from screaming. “I’m Percy.”

I felt what I can only describe as a shift in the atmosphere. The pressure on my scalp lessened as the grip on my hair was released. The vines holding me up fell away and without the support my arms gave out, pitching me forward into the bed. Sobs racked my body as I turned my head to look at him. His face was pale and his eyes were wide in shook. His mouth hung open as he stared blankly down at me, as if trying to figure out how he’d gotten there. If I wasn’t in so much pain I would have laughed at just how vulnerably human a god could look. 

After a few seconds Dionysus began to lower my hips slowly till they were laying flat on the bed. After that he began to slowly pull out of me. He had one hand on my lower back trying to hold me still as my body jerked with each sob. Once he was completely out he gently turned me over so that I was on my back. 

His eyes were softer then I’d ever seen them. If I didn’t know better, I might be tempted to say that he looked almost sorry. I watched as his eyes worked their way up my body stopping at every scratch, bruise, and puncture wound that he was responsible for. He spent a few extra seconds studying the angry bruise on my ribs that Eris had caused, as if he was trying to put together how it had gotten there. A look of realization crossed his face as his eyes snapped up to meet mine. 

“Percy,” He said softly as he reached out his hand toward me. I flinched, I hadn’t meant to but I couldn't stand the idea of him touching me. Not after what he’d just done. When he saw this his movement stopped and he sighed. “We’ll need to talk about this in the morning.”

Before I could regain enough control over my sobs to tell him to get bent his hand closed over the vine tattoo on my leg. Almost instantly darkness consumed me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To recap: Dionysus is really not happy about Percy getting kissed by Eris and in his anger he drags Percy through camp were everyone can see them. All of this culminates in Dionysus’s bedroom where he calls Percy 'Theseus'. Upon realizing his mistake he stops and comes to understand that not only had he let his anger get the better of him but that Percy hadn't actually done anything wrong.


	7. Chapter 7

Almost as soon as the darkness of sleep set in, it began to fade away; which I’ve come to know means, ‘I had better pay attention because this dream might be important’. I took a look around to see if I could recognize were I was. 

This place didn’t seem to have a lot of light except what was given off by the torches lit with Greek fire. What little light there was cast eerie shadows across the gray stone walls. The rocky floors looked damp and the whole place felt like a cave. A very familiar cave, one that I’d been to more than a few times: the Underworld. 

If I remembered correctly I was somewhere near the fields of asphodel, right outside of Hades’ palace. Oh no, did this mean Dionysus killed me?! No, I’m sure I’d remember something like that. Wouldn’t I? My thoughts were interrupted when a transparent man, who was wearing a hard hat, walked right through me mumbling something about needing to fix a lose beam before it fell on some one. I guess since he couldn’t see me it meant that I was just dreaming. 

“I cannot believe father sent me to this wretched place,” a voice said. It was coming from just up ahead were my view was obstructed by a rock out cropping. I knew this voice, and after what happened last time I’d met this person I wasn’t going to forget it any time soon. I knew that beyond that bend in the road was Ares. I ran up to rocky corner and peeked out to see what he was doing down here. 

“And to top it all off he gave my toy to my drunk of a half-brother, Dionysus! I will get out of here, and when I do, Perseus Jackson will rue the day he cros—” 

“Ares! Less slacking off, more work,” came Hades’ voice from behind the palace wall. “Zeus sent you here as punishment. And believe me no one here wants to sit and listen to your hallow threats and empty promises about how you’re going to torment a demigod.”

Ares began to grumble under his breath as he glared back at the palace wall. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. I almost started to laugh harder when I saw Ares turn and start mixing cement. Ares doing manual labor, this was just too good. 

“You could get it done faster if you did it this way,” came a cheerful voice. I looked over to the source and saw the titan Iapetus, or as I had renamed him Bob*. 

“I don’t need your help mixing cement you idiot,” Ares seethed. Bob looked genuinely perplexed. 

“Well then is there anything I could help you with,” Bob said as he gave a helpful smile. 

Ares looked like he was about to snap at him again but he stopped himself as if an idea had worked its way into his thick head. He stood up straight and regarded Bob for a few seconds. 

“Actually, now that I think about it,” Ares said glancing at the palace and then back at Bob. “Can you take over for me here? I need to …uh… go and use the little gods’ room for a moment.” 

“Um… what?” Bob asked.

“The bathroom you imbecile!”

“Oh, ok” Bob said cheerfully as he took Ares’ place by the bucket of wet cement. 

As Ares hurriedly walked down the road I left my hiding place and ran after him. I had to know what he was up to. I kept I fair amount of distance between us but not too much or I might lose him. He turned right along the path that led to the judgment pavilion. The souls that were waiting in the EZ Death line stepped aside to let him pass. 

Ares made his way past the pavilion and headed straight for the fields of punishment, which isn’t a place that ranks high on my lists hang out spots. But if that’s where Ares was headed then that’s where I’d have to go.

He made his way through the gates and into the fields of punishment. And then started heading toward a very large hill, with a haggard looking man struggling to push a boulder up its side. The poor man was very close to the top of the hill by the time Ares reached the foot of it. 

“Sisyphus!” Ares called out. “Come down here at once.”

“In a minute,” Sisyphus’s voice called back from the top of the hill. “I’m almost there. This time the boulder will stay put. I’m sure of it.” 

“Old fool,” Ares muttered under his breath. Sure enough as soon as the rock had crested the top of the hill it began to roll right back down, dragging Sisyphus behind it, and finally coming to a stop at Ares’ feet. 

“Blasted curse,” Sisyphus yelled as he stood up. When he made it to his feet he dusted himself off before turning to glare at Ares. “What do you want? Do you have any idea how long it takes to get that infernal rock all the way up there. It’s your fault it fell down this time. You broke my concentration!”

“Hard to believe they once called an old fool like you wise,” Ares said with a grin.

“Wise enough to trick Death,” Sisyphus boasted, proudly. “Put him in his own chains.”

“I know,” Ares said. “After all, I was the one sent to free Thanatos.”

Sisyphus blanched as recognition dawned on him. “Ares.”

“That’s right,” The war god said looking smug. “I have to say, battles aren’t much fun when no one’s able to die.” 

“W-what is it you want, my lord?” Sisyphus asked as he backed away from Ares as far as his chain would let him.

“I want to know the location of some one,” Ares said slowly. “And I heard that you might be able to provide me with that information.”

“And why should I?” Sisyphus said, his fear replaced by anger. “You’re the one who threw me down here in the first place.”

“Well to be fair your little stunt was ruining my fun,” Ares said with a shrug. “But alright, if you tell me what I want to know I’ll see if I can shave a few years off of your sentence.”

Sisyphus considered this for a moment. “What is it you want to know, my lord?”

“I wish to know the location of Tityos,” Ares demanded.

“Tityos?!” Sisyphus looked shocked. “Whatever for?”

“That is none of you concern,” Ares said angrily. “Do you know where his is, or don’t you?”

“Um… Yes sir, uh… let’s see… last I heard he was cut open and spread out. Every day two vultures come and eat his liver, a lot like Prometheus actually. You gods aren’t very original with your punishments are you.” 

“You are trying my patients,” Ares seethed. “Now, for the last time, WHERE IS HE?!”

“He’s further back in the fields my lord. Past Tantalus’s pool, and just left of Ixion’s spinning, burning wheel.” 

“ Humm, Ixion… maybe I should stop by and say hello. After all, he is my son,” Ares said with a chuckle. If he had been paying attention he would have seen Sisyphus’s face go pale once again. 

“I thought I had told you to get to work,” a dangerous voice growled out. Ares turned to face his enraged uncle.

“Lord Hades, I was simply looking for, uh, the bathroom and I –”

“You shouldn’t lie,” Hades said angrily. “You’re not smart enough to make it convincing.”

Ares stood there glaring at Hades, as if weighing his odds of winning a fight against the Lord of the Dead. Hades glared right back, daring the younger god to be dumb enough to challenge him in his domain. Neither of them noticed Sisyphus turn and start pushing his boulder hurriedly back up the hill. After a few tense moments Hades spoke.

“Of course, if you like the fields of punishment so much I could always just transfer you here,” Hades gestured to the burning pits and various tortured souls strung up on nightmarish devises that were scattered around us. 

“That won’t be necessary,” Ares said, relenting.

“Then get back to work.” Ares didn’t need to be told twice as he hastily made his way back to the road. Hades stood there for a moment watching him leave. 

“Oh and Sisyphus,” Hades called up the hill after him. “Ares doesn’t decide your punishment, I do. Your sentence was for eternity and it will continue as such.”

“Blasted, no good, son of a …” Sisyphus voice faded off as he reduced himself to mumbling under his breath. 

“You know, if you had wanted to visit I could have sent Thanatos to escort you.” Hades turned his head to face me.

“You can see me?” I asked stunned. I thought I was in dream incognito. 

“Of course I can see you, godling,” Hades said rolling his eyes. “I can perceive all forms of human consciousness. I believe my son has used dreams to communicate with you as well. But enough of this, it’s time for you to return.” Hades reached out a hand towards me, but I easily moved out of its way.

“I don’t want to go back,” I said. “I won’t go back.”

“You had your chance to die but you chose immortality instead,” Hades narrowed his gaze on me. “You have no place in my domain.”

“I didn’t realize what I chose when I made that choice,” I said pleadingly. “Please just let me stay here. I’ll eat the food, I’ll become one of your minions, just don’t make me go back to him. Please, I’ll do anything.”

“You’re not the first immortal to wish for death,” Hades eyes softened for a moment before returning to their usual cold gaze. “But you have been claimed by Lord Dionysus, and by his side you must stay. So, farewell, nephew, son of Poseidon, servant of Dionysus, and savior of Olympus.” And with that the vision faded as the sounds from the real world became clearer.

I slowly opened my eyes just enough to get a glimpse of my surroundings. I bolted upright, which proved to be a huge mistake as forgotten aches and pains made themselves known with a vengeance. I was still in Dionysus’s room. 

“Finally awake I see.” Speak of the devil. “I guess it’s time for that talk.”


	8. Chapter 8

I just sat there and stared at Dionysus, who was sitting on his sofa gazing at a blank TV screen as if it were on. A feeling of dread washes over me as I frantically looked around the room to see if maybe someone might burst through the wall and save me from this psycho. No such luck, and in retrospect I wouldn’t have been thrilled to play the part of ‘damsel in distress’. I’m a hero, thank you very much, and that means that I need to be brave. 

It seemed Dionysus had dressed me. I shuddered at the thought that he had touched me again. I slowly kick the sheets off of myself and lower my feet to the floor. My whole body protests every movement but I couldn’t afford to look weak, not when I was alone with him in the room. I shift my weight off of the bed and onto my own two feet. I took a couple of steps forward before I had to brace myself on the bed to keep from falling. 

I look up at Dionysus who was still staring at the empty TV screen. I shook it off and quickly made my away to the door. I clasp the knob, one quick turn and I’d be out of there. I went to turn it only to find that it wouldn’t budge. I started frantically tugging at the door, it was my only escape. I needed to get out of this horrible room. 

“That door won’t open unless I will it to,” Dionysus spoke, finally turning his head to face me. “Now, come and sit down.” It sounded more like a demand than a request. He raised his hand to gesture to an empty chair about five feet from his own seat. 

I continued to scan the room, hoping to find an exit that I hadn’t notice before. But the room was built like a wine cellar; there was only one entrance and one exit, which is locked. So, if I couldn’t get out I’d just have to play along until he lets me out. I cautiously make my way over to the chair and sit down, careful of the pain that was still present.

“I feel that perhaps I got carried away last night,” Dionysus said dismissively. 

“Perhaps!” I said. He’s was even going to admit that he was inarguably in the wrong. He wasn’t even going to apologize!

“I am the god of madness,” he continued on as if he hadn’t heard me. “I suppose even I succumb to my own expertise in that area some times.”

Was he trying to make me mad? This was absurd. I want to hit him and scream at him but at the same time I was still too afraid of him. 

“Crazy doesn’t even begin to cover what you did,” I said weakly. I wish I could have said it in a stronger way but my throat was still sore from last night. “If you had stopped for a second and listened to me…I… You thought I was Theseus!”

The statement hung in the air, Dionysus’ face seemed to become a bit more serious. He watched me as I glared right back while, simultaneously, pushing myself farther into the back of the chair. After a few seconds he let out a heavy sigh.

“You are bound to me,” he said softly. “Eris had no right to even look at you.” 

“Then why’d you take it out on me,” my voice suddenly finding the strength to gain some volume. “Why’d you have to drag me through camp, where everyone would see?! Why’d you have to humiliate me like that?! Why’d you have to lock me in here?! Why did you …” my voice trailed off. I couldn’t bring myself to say that four letter word, but I had to make him admit that he owed me a Hades of a lot more than his half-assed explanations. 

“You have no idea how much you look like him,” Dionysus mused in a quiet tone. “The same eyes, the same hair, you two could’ve been twins if it weren’t for the fact that you were born 3,000 years apart. But, I will admit your looks are where the similarities end. You, Percy Jackson, are loyal to the people you call friends. Your brother never even came close to you in that department.”

“Why did you do this to me?” I said again. 

“I was angry. You know how gods get when they’re angry,” Dionysus said taking a deep breath. “I was angry at you for being so stubborn. I was angry at Eris for breaking etiquette and daring to lay a hand on you. I was angry at Theseus for what he did all those years ago.” He paused as if struggling with the next part. “And I was angry at myself for not protecting you from Ares from the start. For having to be the one to imprison you in this situation by omitting the details, but if you had chosen death I…” he stopped himself from saying whatever he had been about to say. “And, now, for not protecting you from myself.”

I was stunned. He hadn’t really apologized but that was still more then I had expected to get out of him. I stared at him as shock seemed to dominate my features. Dionysus shifted uncomfortably.

“See this is why I hate having meaningful conversations,” Dionysus said irritably. “They always become so… maudlin.”

“Maudlin?” I raised a skeptical eyebrow. Did he really think he was being sentimental? 

“Yes well, that a side,” Dionysus said as he began to change the subject. “I have been wondering if you had that conversation with your father?”

“Um, no,” I looked up at him confused that he would even care. “He wasn’t there. I had to talk to Triton instead.”

“I see,” Dionysus muttered. “I wasted a drachma just so old barnacle beard could skip out on the call. What a waste. Iris should give me a refund for that.”

“What do you mean ‘you’ wasted a drachma,” I asked.

“Well who did you think put it in your pocket? One of the pegasi?”

“No, I just didn’t think it was like you to give away money like that,” I said defensively. “You’re not the most giving person.”

“What are you talking about,” Dionysus said looking affronted. “I’ll have you know, I’m very charitable.” 

Why couldn’t it be like this all the time? Why’d he always have to ruin it by acting like a jerk? It’s moments like these that I realize, he’d actually be, dare I say it, likeable if he just put forth a little effort. That and if he could keep his endless amounts of crazy in check.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked tentatively. “Does Ariadne know about this whole bond thing?”

“She is aware,” Dionysus said with a sigh. “She isn’t too happy about it, seeing as who your brother is and all,” I flinched a little at that. “But she understands that the situation deemed it necessary. I don’t believe she holds any ill-will towards you, if that’s what you’re asking.” 

I let out a breath that I hadn’t realized I was holding. I guess that makes one less person who doesn’t like me and might later come back to try and kill me. 

“One more thing.”

“What?” Dionysus asked impatiently.

“What about the rest of the camp?”

“I don’t think they have any ill-will towards you either,” Dionysus rubbed his chin as if he was really thinking about it. I wanted to hit him.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said angrily. “They all saw me get dragged around by you. They’re going to have questions. What in Hades am I supposed to tell them?”

“The truth,” Dionysus shrugged. “And if any of them give you a hard time about it, just tell me and I’ll turn them into a shrub.”

This was starting to get exhausting. I debated whether or not to continue arguing with him but it seemed like a waste of time. 

“By the way,” Dionysus started. “Chiron has gone ahead and moved your belongs into my cabin. Pollux has already been made aware of the situation as well. He seemed to look forward to having a new roommate. He’s been a little lonely ever since we lost Castor.”

“I suppose I’ll be eating meals at your table, too,” I asked, a little on the peeved side. I didn’t want to move out of Poseidon’s cabin. It felt so final, like my one last safe haven was being taken away.

“You can eat there,” Dionysus nodded. “Or you can eat with me at the head table. I’ll leave that up to you.”

“Can you at least heal me like you did last time?” I asked.

“I’m not Apollo. Besides, with the Ichor in your veins your body should be fully healed by tonight.”

“Tonight?” I looked down at my watch and saw that it was 5:30. Since it was around 7 when I met Eris, I had to assume it was 5:30AM. 

We lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. After nearly a minute of staring at each other (actually I was glaring, he was wearing his poker face), waiting for someone to say something, I decided to break the silence.

“If that’s all can I go now,” I asked impatiently. I probably sounded like a child but I didn’t care. Dionysus just waved his hand dismissively then went back to staring at the silent TV.

I got up and quickly walked over to the door. My fingers wrapped around the knob once more and I could feel the anticipation building within me. I could almost taste the freedom on the other side of the door.

“I am sorry, Percy.”

“Huh?” I turned around to face him again. I wanted to ask him to repeat what he’d just said. Maybe even record it somehow so I could listen to it over and over again whenever I needed to. But as I looked back the room was empty with only the faint smell of grapes lingering in the air. 

I opened the door and stepped back into the kitchen. As soon as the door shut behind me it disappeared into the wall. I slowly made my way through the Big House, checking around the corners as I went, half expecting Dionysus to jump out at me. I made it to the front door and stepped out into the brisk morning air. I paused for a second trying to figure out where I should go now. All my stuff was in Dionysus’ cabin but Pollux was probably still asleep. 

I decided I’d go and practice in the arena. That should take my mind off things. Mrs. O’Leary was probably there and it had been a while since I’d seen her. My mind made up, I headed off in that direction.


	9. Chapter 9

To be honest, I’ve had worse Saturdays. I can’t remember any of them at the moment but I'm sure I have. After I went to the arena and played 'fetch the practice dummy' with Mrs. O’Leary, I was able to go a few rounds on one of the ones that was still standing with Riptide. I didn’t get to spend as much time on it as I would have liked because my body was still so sore, so I capped Riptide and made my way over to the vacant shower stalls. 

After I showered, I made my way towards the mess hall. I was really hungry considering I hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday. I got my plate, piled high with scrambled eggs and bacon, and I then pushed half of it into the fire for a sacrifice to Poseidon. I tried not to think about how little help he’s given me considering everything I’ve gone through this past week. 

I’m suddenly struck by an urge to call my mom. And say what to her exactly, ‘Hi mom! Since I saw you last I’ve been stabbed and poisoned by Ares. Then, to save me, Dionysus went and made me his personal fuck toy. Oh, and dad won’t return my calls. How has your week been?’ Yeah, I’m sure she’d really love that. 

I bring my plate over to Poseidon’s table and as I go to sit I glance up at the head table. Dionysus isn’t there but he does like to show up at times that I’m doing something that'd piss him off. I sigh, collect my plate, and head back to Dionysus’ table. Pollux isn’t there yet, in fact a lot of campers are still sleeping in, so I get to eat this meal in peace. 

After breakfast the day was pretty low key. I spent a long time by the lake just watching the Nerieds weave baskets below the surface. A few of them even offered me some, which I refused. After that they ignored me. 

“Percy?” A voice questioned came from behind me. I didn’t even need to turn my head to know who it was.

“Hey Grover,” I answered back.

“What are you doing out here,” his voice heavy with concern. “Annabeth is looking everywhere for you. There’s a rumor going around saying that Mr.D killed you! What is going on?”

I looked at my best friend. His beard was a little longer and his horns were getting to the point where they would need a ridiculously large hat to cover them. 

“Things have gotten… complicated,” I said slowly. 

“Is it true,” He said sitting down next to me. “Are you bound to Lord Dionysus?”

I stared at him in shock. “Who told you?” I asked quietly.

“The trees talk, you know,” he said guiltily. “The conversation you had with Dionysus yesterday morning was over heard by one of Juniper’s friends, who is a huge gossip. Anyway, me being the lord of the wild and all, I had to see if it was true. I wanted to ask you about it yesterday but I couldn’t find you and then when Mr.D brought you back to camp…” He let himself trail off. We both sat there quietly for a few minutes.

“Percy, are you okay?” He asked finally. “I mean when I first heard about you and Mr.D I was happy for you. It’s a huge honor to be bound to any god, and one as powerful as Lord Dionysus is phenomenal. But then I saw what happened yesterday and I… Oh gods Percy, I wanted to do something, I did, but I got scared. I could feel you through the link and, I don’t know,” He paused trying to calm himself down. He looked at me, his eyes pleading. 

“Can you ever forgive me?”

“Grover, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I insisted. “Look, if you had tried anything it would have just pissed him off even more.” We lapsed into silence again. After a few minutes I had gathered my nerves for what I wanted to say next.

“I want you to dissolve the link.”

“What!?” Grover’s mouth hung open in disbelief. “Why? You were the one who wanted to keep it. That way we’d always know when the other one was in trouble and we could have each other’s back!” 

“I know, but this past week alone, I’ve been stabbed, poisoned, dragged around,” I left out the more private parts of my week. If I told him about that it would just make him feel worse. “I’m sure things are gonna get worse before they get better. Ares is still plotting something and Mr.D will always be a jerk,” Grover cringed when I insulted Dionysus. “I just don’t want you to have to go through it too.” 

Grover looked down at his hands. He was my best friend and I had always felt that the link we shared made us even closer but he had to see that I was trying to protect him. 

“Grover, please,” I said leaning over to try and make eye contact. “I wouldn't ask unless I was absolutely sure that it was for the best. When things have settled down a bit then maybe we could re-connect it.”

Grover finally looked up at me, his eyes searching my face. If he was looking for something to indicate that I wasn't serious, he didn't find it. He sighed. 

“Alright, if it’s what you want.” He shifted so he was sitting in front of me. “Come here.”

He put his hands on either side of my head and closed his eyes. His face scrunched up in concentration. Suddenly there was a pressure on my temples followed by a cold feeling down my spine, and then it was gone. Grover opened his eyes and was breathing hard as if he’d just run a marathon. 

“Thanks Grover,” I said sincerely. 

“Yeah, well, just remember, as soon as things calm down I’m renewing it.” We both smiled at that. 

“Percy?” Grover asked looking concerned. “What did you mean by ‘Ares is still plotting’?”

“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “I had a dream about him serving his punishment in the underworld. He was asking were to find someone. But I didn’t recognize the name. It might not have anything to do with me.”

“Who was he looking for?”

“Someone named ‘Tityos’. Have you ever heard of anyone by that name?” 

Grover shook his head. “Maybe Chiron might know?” He offered.

“Maybe,” was all I said. I couldn’t tell Grover that I was mad at Chiron for standing by and letting Dionysus treat me this way. Chiron had known from the beginning what Dionysus was going to do and he hadn’t even thought to warn me. I decided it was best to change the subject. 

“So, you said Annabeth was looking for me?”

“Oh, yeah,” He said just now remembering. “She should be near the cabins.”

We made our way back into the, rather crowded, heart of camp, and there she was, blonde hair catching the sunlight in its subtle waves, her gray eyes sharp and alert. If only we hadn’t broken up. How different would my life be now if we had tried to make it work?

“Annabeth!” Grover called over to her. “I found him.”

“Percy!” She rushed over to me and before I knew it she had me in a tight hug. After a few seconds she stepped back and looked me up and down. “Are you alright? I was so worried. I thought that he might kill you. What did you do to make him so angry? And now, just this morning some of the dryads were saying that you and Mr.D-”

“PERCY!” I looked past Annabeth to see Pollux charging straight for me. I only had enough time to move Annabeth out of the way as he cocked his arm back and landed a punch right in my face. I recall hearing the bones in my nose crack and break as the force knocked me backwards onto the ground. My eyes started to water as I blinked up at the very angry son of Dionysus. He still wasn’t nearly as scary as his father but he defiantly had my attention.

“Is it true?!” He screamed at me. Campers around us just watched as I held my bleeding nose. “Is it true that you’re fucking my father?!” And with that statement Pollux effectively ended any chance I had at a decent social life.


	10. Chapter 10

“Pollux! What in Hades do you think you’re doing?!” Annabeth exclaimed, as two nearby members of Hephaestus’s cabin restrained Pollux.

“Why don’t you ask him?!” Pollux pointed at me. “He’s the little slut who seduced my dad! He thinks that just because he’s the great ‘Percy Jackson, Savior of Olympus’ he can just do whatever he wants, with whoever he wants!”

“Blaa-ah,” Grover bleated. “That’s not what happened. If you’d just let Percy explain…” 

“What is going on here?” Chiron demanded as he trotted up to us. He slowly took in the scene: Pollux being held back by, easily two of the biggest guys at camp, Annabeth red faced and fuming, Grover standing nervously next to her, me on the ground holding my broken nose, and of course, the large group of campers who had all stopped to watch the exchange.

“Did you know?!” Pollux yelled, angrily at Chiron. “Did you know about him and my dad?!”

Chiron’s eyes darted to me briefly before he gave a heavy sigh. 

“Yes, I knew.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?! I had to find out from a bunch of giggling dryads. How could you even stand by and let this happen?! Did you think I wouldn’t find out? And now I have to share my cabin with that disgusting little whore!!” 

“Don’t you dare call Percy that!!” Annabeth moved forward to hit him but she was held back by her brother, Malcolm.

“That’s enough! Both of you are behaving very childishly,” Chiron chided. “Pollux, Percy hasn’t done anything that warrants this sort of behavior from you. As for why you weren’t told, we were worried you’d act like this. It is not my place to comment on other people’s private life, so if you want to know the details I suggest you ask you father.” 

Chiron waited to see if Pollux had anything else to say. Annabeth had calmed down and was no longer being held back, something Malcolm seemed relieved about. Pollux stood there glaring angrily between me and Chiron. After a few moments his angry violet eyes locked on Chiron.

“Fine then, I’ll go talk to him.”

“Good,” Chiron said shortly, before turning to the crowd of campers. “The rest of you, get back to your activities. Annabeth, Grover, you two go as well.”

Annabeth looked reluctant but Grover grabbed her elbow and steered her away to follow the retreating campers. I heard some of the campers whisper as they left. Things like: “Percy’s gay, no wonder he and Annabeth didn’t last” or “I always thought that kid was weird” or “Why Mr.D? Percy’s hot, he could have gotten someone better” or “Did you see his blood? I think it was gold.” In no time at all, though, I was alone with Chiron. 

“Quite a mess we have here,” Chiron mused quietly. He leaned down and offered me his hand. I just glared up at him, one hand on my nose as I used the other to push myself up. Chiron just sighed and steeped back to give me some space.

“Percy, I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry,” Chiron said. “If there had been any other way to save you I wouldn’t have let the council put you in this situation, but this was the only way to save your life. I know you don’t like it now but maybe, with time you could adjust to it.”

I just kept glaring at Chiron. It’s not like I had nothing to say to him, believe me, there was plenty I wanted to say to him, but my head hurt, my eyes were watery, and I could feel blood dripping down the back of my throat making me nauseous. All I really wanted to do was go lay down for a bit. 

“Try not to be too angry at Pollux, either,” Chiron continued, changing the subject. “You know he’s not a violent person, but when it comes to family, he’s very protective. His mother died when he was still very young. After that he and Castor were sent to live here with their father. And when Castor died, Mr.D became the only family he had left.”

There was silence between us for a few moments. Chiron stared at me waiting for a response. 

“Fine, whatever, can I go now?” I said impenitently. 

Chiron looked hurt but he quickly straightening himself up. 

“Yes I suppose you can,” he said sadly. “But Percy, I once told you that it is important that we trust each other. Now more than ever, you need to know that you’re not alone in this. If you won’t come to me for help, promise me that you’ll go to one of your friends.”

“Whatever,” I said as I started to walk away. I was stopped when his hand grabbed my wrist.

“I mean it, Percy. Promise me.”

“Ok, I promise,” I said wrenching my hand free of his.

The rest of the day I spent hiding from everyone. Most of the time I stayed in the forest trying to find a spot where there were no campers, satyrs, or dryads, which was a much harder feat to accomplish then you might think. Eventually I came to the rocky hill that once served as an entrance to Daedalus’s labyrinth. 

After I had washed the blood of my face in a nearby stream, I stayed there for the rest of the day. I sat down on one of the larger rocks and tried to clear my head. I didn’t really think about anything, content with letting my mind go blank. Before I knew it I had missed lunch, dinner, and curfew, witch meant that if I left this spot there was a good chance that I’d get attacked by harpies. I curled up on the ground in a spot that was well hidden between a collection of very large rocks. I was so tired that I didn’t care how uncomfortable it was. After shifting around, trying to find a good position, I managed to fall asleep. 

The sun’s rays penetrated the thick canopy and cast light right onto my eyelids. I groggily rolled over to get a look at my surroundings. I was still alive, which meant nothing had found me during the night and tried to eat me. That’s a good sign, I guess.

As I sat up and stretched, a purple blanket fell off of me. I know that I didn’t have it with me when I feel asleep and seeing as it was purple, it was pretty obvious where it had come from.

“Well this is about as subtle as an angry Chimera. Why doesn’t he just tattoo ‘property of Dionysus’ on me?” I grumbled. ‘Oh wait, he already has,’ I thought as I ran my hand over my thigh. 

My body was sore from the awkward position I had slept in but I gingerly got up and brushed myself off. I looked back in the direction of camp but I still wasn’t ready to return just yet. I figured now would be as good a time as any to try and talk to my father again, even though I know it’s a long shot, maybe this time he might come up to see me. 

I made my way to the beach and sat down on the sand. The sun was high in the sky as a few wispy little clouds passed in front of it. I directed my glance towards the bay. Other than some small waves and two hippocampi playing out past the breakers, the sea was relatively calm. 

“Hey there! Mind if I join you?” Hermes smiled down at the startled look on my face.

“Nice day, isn’t it?” He asked with a grin, but I didn’t believe for a second that he had come to make small talk.

“Hello, Lord Hermes,” I said. Which I thought was a good move; it’s very difficult for someone to be offended by an innocuous colloquial greeting. I still remember the last and only time I’d ever seen him truly angry. How his caduceus had transformed into a giant, electric cattle prod, and the only thing that had saved me from becoming BBQ was the curse of Achilles. “Um… Whatsup?”

“It’s Sunday! TGIS!” He said cheerfully. “No mail on Sunday, which is, incidentally, my favorite thing about the modern postal system. As for what’s up… I think I should be asking you that. Heard you’ve had quite a week.”

“Yeah it’s been…” I paused looking for a word to describe the past week. After a few seconds I just gave up and left the statement hanging in the air. 

“I see,” Hermes nodded understandingly. He reached into his mail bag and pulled out two bottles of Coke. He handed one to me with a smile. “Here. As I recall, I owe you one.” 

“Thanks,” I said glumly. “So…um… How have you been? Ya know, since…” I let the question trail off. If I kept this up I’d go through the entire conversation without finishing a sentence.

Hermes sighed heavily. “It’s been tough but I’m a god. If there’s one thing we immortals are good at its coping and moving on.” His cheerful expression had fallen briefly as he spoke but he quickly rearranged his face so that he was smiling again. 

“Enough about me, I’m here to check up on you. A lot of us on Olympus are wondering how well you are adjusting to everything. We would check Hephaestus TV for updates but Dionysus keeps blocking the signal out of camp.” Hermes chuckled but he stopped when he saw my expression darken after he mentioned Dionysus. We lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

“Oh before I forget,” He turned my head to face him as he put his hands on either side of my face.

“Wait! What are you doing?” I asked alarmed as he placed his thumbs beside my broken nose.

“Hold still,” He said. There was the audible crack of bones breaking and I flinched in discomfort. “There, much better. Now you look more like yourself and less like a Picasso painting.”

I felt my nose only to find it straight and mended. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“I’ve been wondering; if I have the curse of Achilles, how come I’m getting hurt so often now?”

“Immortality cancels out invulnerability. You can be one or the other but never both,” He said as he went back to watching the surf. “Percy?”

“Yeah.”

“I know you’re angry at Dionysus. And you have every right to be,” He added quickly. “But everything he did was for your protection. You may not understand it just yet, but one day it’ll make sense. In the end, you’ll see that the council made the right decision binding you to him.”

“What!? How can you even say that? After everything he’s put me through! Not just this week, but from the very beginning. When he first found out that Poseidon was my father he threatened to make me spontaneously combust! Or to turn me into a Dolphin! He still pretends he doesn’t know my name! And now all of this! I would have taken anyone else over him!” I was so caught up in my anger I didn’t realize that I was yelling at a god. And not just any god, but Hermes, who had always been cool and understanding, even after the war. But he just sighed and shook his head.

“Anyone, Percy? You should be more careful about what you say,” He said sternly. “I mean it, you could have been paired up with anyone but you were bound to Dionysus. Why do you think that is?”

“Because I have horrible luck,” I said gloomily.

“No,” Hermes chuckled. “You were bound to him because it made sense for you to be. Look at the other candidates: It couldn’t have been any of the women, for obvious reasons. It couldn’t have been Zeus, that would just piss off Hera even more. It couldn’t have been Poseidon, for obvious reasons.” I shuddered. “It couldn’t have been Hades, mostly because he would have achieved the same results if he just let you die. It couldn’t have been Ares, that goes without saying. In the end it came right down to who had the ability to be there and protect you at any given moment. Seeing as Hephaestus, Apollo, and myself are always so busy, that only left one person.”

“Dionysus,” I concluded. “But, wait, why couldn’t it have been one of the goddesses?”

“Oh boy,” Hermes cringed. “I had really hoped that after what happened with Pan, I would never have to give ‘The Talk’ again. Well you see half of them are sworn to be virgins forever, so that removes Athena, Artemis, and Hestia. Zeus would never let you touch Hera; in fact Hera wouldn’t let you touch her, so she’s out. Aphrodite and Demeter are out because of the nature of the bond that needed to be invoked. It required you to receive the essence of a god within yourself. So basically it means that said god would have to ejaculate –” 

“Alright, I get it!” I interrupted hastily. I didn’t really want to hear him describe it in detail. 

“As long as you understand,” He shrugged. “Anyway, I don’t think you realize the weight Dionysus has to bear.”

“What weight? He just sits around and plays pinochle all day.”

“You know that’s not true, in fact he does far more then you’re aware,” Hermes said. “Earlier you said that he still pretends that he doesn’t remember your name.”

“Yeah. He’s just doing it to be condescending,” I have no idea what Hermes is trying to say. As far as I’m concerned Dionysus is a lazy jerk. Case closed. It’s not like he ever went out of his way to hide it. 

“You don’t get it,” Hermes said with a heavy sigh. “Zeus could not have picked a more cruel punishment then when he sent Dionysus here. Don’t get me wrong, this camp is a fantastic place for young heroes to learn how to defend themselves, but that’s also the problem. It’s full of heroes. And if history as taught us anything, it’s that heroes are notoriously good at one thing in particular: dying. Zeus wanted him to work with you kids and to train you but that involves getting to know you. Why do you think we don’t interfere more directly in your lives? Yes, in part it’s because we have to let you find your own paths, but there’s more to it than that. After 3000 years you learn to distance yourself emotionally from most mortals, that way it hurts less when they die.”

I looked at him puzzled. I’d never thought of it that way, but I guess I always assumed that they had gotten used to outliving their demigod children. I remember someone once telling me that the worst pain a parent can experience is to outlive their child, but if that’s the case for the gods, then why do they keep having children? That’s when Dionysus’s words form Bobby Earl’s birthday party came back to me, ‘The gods need heroes. They always have.’ 

“Dionysus doesn’t pretend to forget your names to be condescending; all though that is what he wants you to believe. He does it to keep you at a distance. It’s not that he doesn’t care, it’s that he runs the risk of caring. That’s way he acts the way he does. That’s why he keeps you all at arm’s length, because if he doesn’t he runs the risk of getting hurt.”

Hermes stood up and brushed himself off, getting ready to leave. 

“Then what about his hatred for me because of my connection to Theseus?” 

“Well that may be an exception,” Hermes chuckled nervously. “But over time he has come to hold a grudging respect for you. If he didn’t see you as being separate from Theseus before, he certainly does now. Especially after…” He trailed off. “Well anyway, I should be going-” 

“Wait!” I called out. “There’s one more thing I want to ask you.”

“Is it about your father?” He asked. I nodded my head. 

“Why won’t he talk to me? He hasn’t even tried to contact me once. This week I’ve literally been to Hades and back and he’s completely ignoring me!”

“Well he’s very busy. He’s got to rebuild his palace, and now, with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and hurricane season coming up, he just doesn’t have a lot of free time.” 

Hermes paused when he saw me glaring at him. He sighed and then looked around quickly. 

“Okay, but don’t tell anyone that I told you this. Poseidon has been restricted from having contact with you.” I opened my mouth to protest but Hermes held up his hand, silencing me. “The reason for this is quite simple. If he had his way he’d take you away to his palace and lock you away for all eternity in some misguided attempt to keep you safe. But more importantly than that, he can’t interfere because you need to work through this on your own. This is just like any other quest, you've heard the Oracle’s prophecy and now you need to overcome the challenges that await you. Whether or not you are victorious depends on you. How you cope with your situation, and whether or not you can make peace with Dionysus. You’re the one that your happiness depends on. So, you need to decide what your next move will be.”

He began to glow and I looked away just as he relieved his true form and left the beach. Foot prints and an empty Coke bottle were the only proof that he’d been there at all.


	11. Chapter 11

“I told you to keep your stuff on that side of the cabin,” Pollux glared at me as he came into our cabin.

It had been a month since everything had happened and, for the most part, things had settled down. Sure, for the first week everyone was whispering behind my back or avoided me. In some cases, people even throw things at me as they called me a freak or a homo. Those people seemed to have a nasty habit of turning into field mice for some reason. As bad as all that had been after a week or so most people went back to their usual activities. 

“Sorry,” I mumbled as I bent down to pick up the sock that had fallen over the imaginary line that divided our cabin. Living with Pollux had been challenging at first but after a while I got used to his backhanded comments and cold demeanor. Don't get me wrong, it was still unnerving as Hades when I would woke up in the middle of the night and he would be sitting there, just glaring at me through the darkness. That was, really creepy, but he hadn't tried to punch me since he talked to his dad. It was amazing how, with one look this guy could make a sweltering summer day feel down right frigid. 

Dionysus had kept his distance ever since the 'indecent', which wouldn't have bothered me if not for the fact that the second I stepped outside I would get the felling that he was watching me. Maybe I was just being paranoid because I never saw him around unless it was at meals. Still, the feeling was always there. 

After throwing my sock into a pill of dirty clothes in the corner of the room, I turned and walked out of the cabin out into the 103 degree July air, thank you global warming. It was about eight in the evening so I had about a half hour left before the sun set. As soon as my feet crossed the threshold the feeling started to creep up my spine again. 

I thought that after a month I'd have gotten used to the feeling of being watched, or maybe, that he would stop. But as the days went by and the feeling persisted it just became more and more annoying. Add that on top of everything else, and I'd had just about as much of it as I could take. Maybe it was the heat, or maybe I was exhausted after so many nights of being kept up by my psycho roommate. What ever the reason, I was going to put an end to this nightmarish summer once and for all. 

Campers were starting to gather around the campfire as I marched by. It must have been the look on my face or perhaps I was exuding an aura of anger, either way they quickly moved aside to let me pass. This pattern continued all the way up to the big house. My hand was shaking a little as I wrenched open the door. This would be the first time I talked to Dionysus since that night, but I couldn't let my fear stop me. I was pissed, tired, hot, sweaty, and had been humiliated everyday since the moment I'd set foot within the boundaries of camp this summer. I'd had it. I pushed open the door and made my way into the empty front room of the house.

“Dionysus!” I shouted my voice echoed back to me. “Get out here where I can see you!”

“How rude. Is that any way to address a god?”

I turned around to see him standing about four feet behind me. I clenched my fists and narrowed my eyes. I came here for a reason and I couldn't let him know how scared I felt just looking at him.

“Stop it.”

“I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific,” Dionysus sighed. “Or am I just supposed to guess what it is you are referring to?”

“You know what I'm referring to. Stop following me around and watching me all the time! I have enough to deal with as it is thanks to you, I don't need you stalking me, too!”

“Watch your tone, Jackson,” he said dangerously as his eyes narrowed. “While you are at this camp you are in my care. If I feel I need to keep an eye on you I will. That is, after all, the whole reason the counsel put me in this mess. So, now, I have to constantly watch you and make sure you're not about to run off and do something stupid. The last thing I need is to be blamed for you ending up in the infirmary due to your own idiocy.”

“Right, cause you've been doing such a good job up till now,” I said sarcastically. “I can't think of a single time I've been hurt while you were around.”

A flicker of a cringe crossed his features but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. His face returned to a slightly reddened scowl as we both tried to stare down the other. Finally I decided to break the silence.

“I want to go home.”

“No.” I was clenching my fists so tightly now the knuckles were turning white. 

“Yes,” I countered through gritted teeth. “I don't want to be here any more. I want to see my mom and step-dad. One way or another I'm leaving tonight.”

“You would dare to defy me?” Dionysus took a step closer to me. His eyes zeroed in on my face as the sent of grapes filled the air. I was almost as scared as I'd been the night of the 'incident' but I had to get through this. I couldn't stay at camp any longer and expect to maintain my sanity. 

“Yes, I would,” I said as I drew in a deep breath and stuck my chest out a little more. “Why? What are you gonna do to stop me, huh? Tie me up? Drag me through camp? Oh, I know, maybe you'll, what was it, 'tether me to a post just beyond the border of camp, and summon every monster in the tri-state area.' Is that what--”

“Enough!” His voice boomed throughout the house with such force that the house shook. I lost my footing and fell back onto the hard wood floor. My mouth instantly closed as fear cut through me. I felt the blood rush from my face as my eyes widened. If I had gone to far, would he hurt me again? He had seemed apologetic before about what had happened, but if he lost his temper would he be able to control himself? 

His eyes burned purple as he looked down into my scared green ones. We stayed like that of what felt like hours as he looked down at me in seething rage. Then the grape smell dissipated and Dionysus let out a sigh as he rubbed hi forehead. 

“Fine,” he said turning away from me.

“What?”

“I said 'fine'. You can go home in the morning if that's what you want. Argus will take you back to your mother.” 

I couldn't believe it. He was letting me go. Just like that? I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and for the first time all summer I felt relieved. 

Dionysus turned away from me and started towards the door. He paused a moment and turned enough to look back at me on the floor. He opened his mouth as if to say something. I sucked in a breath of air and waited for what ever he was going to say to ruin my moment of triumph. His eyes locked with mine as he closed his mouth. He turned back to the door and made his way out into the night air, leaving me on the floor wondering what had just happened.


	12. Chapter 12

I had my bags all packed by the time the sun rose that morning. It hadn't taken me long to do seeing as everything I owned was piled on my side of the cabin, as opposed to scattered everywhere, like when I had stayed in Poseidon’s cabin by myself. I looked over at Pullox as he shifted in his sleep. I hadn't told him that I was leaving but I figured he'd be happy to have the cabin all to himself again. I put my bags on my bed and went outside into the crisp morning air.

It was still hot outside but the sun was still on the horizon and a light fog covered the ground so it was mildly pleasant out. I stood on the cabin's porch just enjoying these last few moments. This camp had meant so much to me. I would have died to defend it, and now I'm leaving it. It made me sad to think that I probably wouldn't be coming back. That's when I noticed a figure making it's way towards me from the direction of the big house. A feminine figure with red hair.

“Rachel?” Something about the way she was moving didn't seem natural. She was walking kind of sluggish, like she was in a trance. 

“Rachel,” I called out again as she got closer. This was not right, she looked like she might fall over at any moment. I decided to run over to her and make sure she was all right. As I got closer to her I could tell that she wasn't conscious of what was happening. I had heard that you're never supposed to wake a sleep walker, but seeing her out here in her pajamas walking through the fog like this was just creepy. 

“Rachel,” I put my hand on her shoulder and began to lightly shake her. “Hey, Rachel. It's me, Percy. Come on, wake up.”

Her head started to turn in my direction, and I noticed her eyes for the first time. They were glowing.

“A monster that preys on the innocent rises,  
a beast that, my Lord Apollo, despises,  
He is called on now at war's behest,   
till his thirst is quenched he cannot rest,  
yet when he comes for you do not despair,  
the one whom you fled will soon be there.”

She started to fall forward and I caught her before she hit the ground. I turned her over to find that she was asleep. I picked her up and carried her back towards to big house. 

The walk there was quiet and long. Rachel was heavier then she looked, although I don't need an oracle to tell me that I should never say that to her face. Some birds were tweeting at the rising sun off in the distance and the dew on the ground was starting to soak through my sneakers. By the time I came to the front porch of the big house my arms had begun to ache and me feet were freezing. 

I nudged open the door and headed up stairs to Rachel's room. I laid her on the bed and tried to be as quiet as I could leaving her room, which was actually really hard to do because every time I took a step I'd step on crumpled up paper, or pencils, or tubes of paint. I finally managed to make it out into the hall and back down stairs. That's when I heard voices. They were faint but they sounded like they were talking about something serious.

It's like that old saying they have down in Atlantis, “curiosity killed the catfish.” I knew, in the back of my mind, that it probably wasn't a good idea, but I couldn't help myself. I made my way through the house to get closer to the sounds. The voices were coming from inside the rec room. I could even start to make out who the voices belonged to: Hermes, Chiron and Dionysus. I peeked my head in to try and see what they were talking about.

“Look I've told you all I know. Hades is almost a hundred percent certain that Tityos's escape was orchestrated by Ares. You do realize what this means, don't you?” Hermes said. His image seemed distorted some how, then I realized that he was speaking through Iris message. 

“Of course we know what this means, and we are certainly not taking in lightly. It's only that, well, as long as the children are inside the camp, they are safe,” Chiron said. His tail swished back and forth in agitation. 

“And what if they leave on a quest, huh? What then? Dionysus, you hadn't been born yet, but I'm sure you've heard the stories. Tityos is the embodiment of our father's rage and lust. He will tare anything he gets his hands on to pieces.” 

“Though I was not alive at the time, I do know know what Tityos is capable of, Hermes. And if you're implying that I can't protect this camp from a drooling beast like him, then you are gravely mistaken,” Dionysus spoke in a slightly offended tone. “I may be the youngest of all the gods, but do not make the mistake of thinking that I'm the weakest.”

There was a strained and awkward silence. After a few moments Chiron cleared his throat.

“Tityos is a problem that will need to be dealt with as soon as possible, on that we can agree. However, I just don't see why you would think that he's coming here. Last time he went after Leto, only to be slain by Apollo and Artemis, but I've never heard of him going after children.”

“He went after Leto on Hera's orders and this time he's working for Ares. We all know what Ares wants at this point, and Hades has conformed that his goals have not changed. Also, take into account the last time Tityos was top side a person was considered an adult at the age of 15. I'm sure there are quite a few campers whom he would consider adults,” Hermes pointed out.

“This whole conversation is moot because, as I said before, he is not getting in,” Dionysus in a bored tone.

“Look, all I'm saying is that he's coming. So try not to act too surprised when he shows up on your doorstep. If you've been following the human newspapers you'd know that he's already started leaving a trail of 'raped and mutilated to the point of unidentifiable' corpses in his wake,” Hermes quote from a newspaper he seemed to have pulled out of thin air. “And before you dismiss this whole thing, why don't you take a moment to consider who it is he's after this time. There's no sense in ignoring it, the person Ares has sent him after this time is Percy.”

My breath caught in my throat. This Tityos guy/monster was coming after me. Why did it always have to be me? I was pulled out of my thoughts as Hermes continued talking.

“Percy's not invulnerable any more, Dionysus. And while he cannot be killed, he can be broken, which is exactly what Ares is hoping for. But, hey, if you say the camp is safe, then I'll take your word for it.”

Hermes raised his caduceus and cut through the image causing himself to vanish.

“What should we tell the children?” Chiron asked.

“We don't need to tell them anything. As long as they're within the boundaries of the camp, they'll be fine. Besides, you heard Hermes, they're not the ones that Tityos is after,” Dionysus said as he went to sit at a near by table. 

“True. So we'll just make sure that Percy remains in our sight at all times. He wouldn't like that but it's the only way to keep him safe.”

The was a pause as Dionysus seemed to be considering what his next move would be.

“No,” He said as he heaved a heavy sigh. “I already promised Percy that he could return home today.”

“What?! Lord Dionysus, if you send him home now he'll be completely unprotected. Tell him you've changed your mind. Tell him that he must stay here or he'll be at risk. Tell him –”

“What? That that if he goes home there's a chance that he'll be raped by some lunatic? It's a little late for that warning don't you think? Same situation, different lunatic.” Dionysus growled out as Chiron shifted nervously. Dionysus took a deep breath and continued.

“Tityos is coming here. As far as he knows, this is where Percy will be. Once he gets here and sees that that is not the case he will be confused and directionless. Tityos is, essentially, a demigod, he won't be able to track like a monster would. We'll be able to take advantage of that and, if we're lucky, we can send him back down to Hades. Besides, it is not as though I am leaving Percy entirely without protection.”

Chiron looked like he had more to say but whatever it was I never heard it. I was so focused on what they were saying that I didn't notice a shadow looming behind me until a hand clamped down on my shoulder and dragged me away from the door. I spun around to face who ever it was that had snuck up on me, only to come face to face with Argus. 

“Um... this isn't what it looks like. I was just upstairs 'cause Rachel was sleep walking, and then I heard voices so I came down here to see what was going on and... is that my bag?” My attempt to explain myself was cut off as he held up my blue duffel. He raised his eyebrows at me, which made it look like a ripple had moved up the entire left side of his body, and gestured for me to follow him. 

He led the way out of the house to where the van was idling outside. I climbed into the passenger seat and looked out at Camp Half-Blood as he put the van in drive.


	13. Chapter 13

It was good to be home. Mom was surprised to see me home so soon. When she asked why, I just told her that things at camp were awkward since Annabeth and I had broken up, which wasn't a total lie. 

“Percy,” she started. “I wish I'd known you were coming home so soon.”

“Yeah, sorry. I would have called or Iris messaged you, but the whole thing was kind of last minute.”

“It's not that,” she shifted uncomfortably and looked at Paul who was sitting on the couch next to her. “It's just that, with you at camp and it's summer, so Paul doesn't have to teach, we had planned to go on a vacation.”

I have to admit I wasn't expecting that, but it made sense. I guess I hadn't thought about what my mom and Paul would be doing while I was away. 

“Oh,” I tried not to sound to disappointed. “That's okay. I can just stay here and look after myself while you're gone.”

“I don't know,” Mom didn't sound very convinced.

“Come on. I'm almost seventeen not to mention I helped save the world last summer I think I can handle a few days by myself.”

“Actually, we'd been planing to be away for about a month,” Paul said.

“It's not that I don't trust you to be alone,” Mom said quickly. “I just think you'd have more fun at camp with your friends then sitting around here.” 

“I'll be fine,” I said, trying to sound like I believed that. “Besides there will be plenty for me to do.”

“I don't know,” Paul said hesitantly.

“Really, I'll be fine, you two go and enjoy yourselves.”

After that discussion the next week went by rather uneventfully. Mom and Paul seemed happy enough to have me home. I got the feeling that they didn't completely buy my excuse for coming home so soon, but they didn't bring it up. Soon it was time for them to go to the airport. I helped carry down their bags as Paul loaded them into a taxi. 

“Ok, so you have the numbers we can be reached at and our itineraries,” my mom said as she dug her keys out of her purse. “Remember to lock the door, even during the day when you're by yourself. Oh, and the windows at night. If you have any problems call the tenet. Don't go out after dark. And when you go out during the day don't talk to strangers, look both ways when you cross the street, and—”

“Mom, I'm not five. I know how to take care of myself.”

“I know, but I'm your mother. I can't help but worry,” she said as she pulled her apartment key off of her key ring and handed it to me. “Oh and no parties, either.” She paused and grinned. “Unless you clean up afterward.”

“Sally, it's time to go,” He walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Take care of yourself, ok? We'll see you in a month. And take this,” He handed me his credit card. “That's for food and cab fare and maybe a little fun on the side. Just don't go crazy.”

“I've managed to stay sane so far so I don't think I'm in any danger there,” I said with a small laugh. Paul looked a little concerned, but before he could ask me to elaborate my mom pulled me into a hug.

“I love you, Percy,” She whispered in my ear before she pulled any. “You know what time we get back and I'll call you before our plane takes off.” 

I waved as the taxi pulled off of the curb and made it's way to the end of the street. The cab turned left and disappeared from view. My heart sank a little and I turn and went back inside the building.

For the next few days things went pretty smoothly, aside from the one night I tried to cook my own dinner and nearly set fire to the kitchen. I woke up at around noon, ate left overs for lunch, and played video games on my xbox360, which had been a Christmas present from Paul. At around 6:30 I would grab Paul's credit card and head down to a diner that was about three blocks away, and doggy-bag whatever I didn't finish. Then I would come back home and watch TV until there was nothing on but infomercials and go to bed. Pretty boring, I know, but hey after everything that had happened, I wasn't about to complain. I should have known better then to think this calm would last.

The first of July was the same as any other day had been up to that point. I had finished up my lunch time left overs and was brushing my teeth. I left the tv in the living room on for background noise so that the apartment wouldn't feel so empty.

“Reports are still coming in about a resent spike in the numbers of missing persons,” a man's voice said in that halting newsman cadence that made him sound a little robotic. “Police are urging New Yorkers to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activities to the authorities immediately.”

“And one family's worst nightmare realized when they discovered that their one year old son had been brutally murdered in his crib last night,” a woman's voice chimed in. “This is the latest in a string of murders involving infants. Our own Candie Kane has the latest on that story. Candie.”

“Cassie, I'm here at the home of...” I turned the tv off at that point. I had enough things to worry about as it was. Why is it that the news never seems to report on anything happy? After that I went about my day as usual. 

I was on my way back from the diner that night carrying my left overs in one arm. The sun was starting to set as I made my way through the throngs of sweaty people. I was getting a little impatient so I decided to take a shortcut I knew that would lead me home without having to deal with this crowd. I made my way down one of the vacant alleys but as I passed the dumpsters I heard sobbing. I looked back to see who was crying and I saw a woman hunched over in the shadow of one of the dumpster. Her back was to me and her long black hair shielded her face, but I could tell by the way that her shoulders were shaking that she was the one crying. 

“Excuse me,” I said softly as I approached her. “Are you alright?” I know stupid question, but what was I supposed to say? She tensed for a moment before letting out a shaky breath.

“I can't find them.”

“Excuse me?”

“I can't find them!” She wailed still not turning to face me. “My children. Where are my children?”

“Your children are missing?” I was startled, they don't teach you how to deal with this sort of thing at camp. “Where did you see them last?”

“She took them away!” She was sobbing harder now.

“She?”

“She was jealous. He fell in love with me and she was jealous.”

“Who was jealous?” I had a bad feeling about this, and maybe I should have listened to my gut but this woman needed my help. I couldn't just walk away.

“Hera!” She screeched. “Hera took my children. Zeus loved me, but when she found out she grew angry. She took them!” 

Hera took this woman's children. The anger I had felt for what Hera had done to me was nothing compared to the rage that ran through me at that moment.

“When did she take them? There might still be time to save them.” I said frantically. The woman paused and raised her head a little as if sniffing the air, but she still didn't face me.

“If only we could save them,” she said softly. “But how would you be able to do it? You can't even save yourself, little brother.”

“I can save them! If we hurry we-... Wait. What did you just call me?” I asked. 

“Your father is Poseidon, correct? This makes us siblings,” she whispered. 

“Who are you?” I asked as I stepped closer. She began to turn towards me. As her face came into view I almost feel back in shock. Her face was beautiful, soft features, plump red lips, high check bones, but instead of eyes only two empty bloody sockets stared back at me.

“When she took my children I was so distraught. In my madness I tore out my own eyes. But after some time I realized something.” She stepped away from the dumpster. A torn up teddy bear lay in the spot she had been covering. The once light brown fur was covered in thick, dark red, blood. “I realized that if I can't have my children then I should take my vengeance on the children of others.”

Her smile grow to show a row of pointy teeth that resembled a shark's. I took a step back as I slowly reached into my pocket and clutched Rip Tide.

“Why? Why would you kill innocent children for what Hera did to you? How could you think that that would make things better?”

“Oh little brother, don't you understand,” she said as she took a step closer. “She is a goddess of motherhood. Every child I kill means one more mother in grief.” 

“You're insane!” 

“No, little brother, I am completely justified,” She sneered as she took another step closer. “I am Lamia! Queen of Libyan, mother of Scylla, Akheilos, and Sibylla. Daughter of Poseidon and lover of Zeus. Devourer of children and enemy of the Queen of the Heavens!”

“Yeah, your crazy,” I breathed out as I draw Rip Tide from my pocket and uncapped it.

“Believe what you wish, brother. It doesn't matter, seeing as you'll be dead soon enough!” She leaped at me and I slashed upwards. 

She dodged and came at me from the side, her mouth open and ready to bite me. I side stepped her and brought Rip Tide down, aiming for her neck. She spun out of the way and began to circle me. Her empty eye sockets trained on my face. She snapped her jaws at me as she lunged at my neck. At that same moment I thrust riptide up into her stomach as her teeth sank into my shoulder.

Her jaw clenched as her body shook just before she burst into gold dust. I stumbled back as I recapped Rip Tide. Golden Ichor flowed from the wound on my shoulder as I sank to my knees. 

My moment of relief was short lived as a shadow fell over me. A shadow of someone very big. I turned to see who it was, but with the sun setting behind him, all I could make out was his silhouette.

“Took long enough, but now I've finally have you, Percy Jackson,” a deep voice rumbled out and in that instance I knew who it was. 

Tityos had found me.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Attempted rape and violence

The air around me seem seemed to grow still and the world seemed to pass into silence despite being in the middle of the city. I could feel the blood drain from my face and a shiver ran up my spine as a low chuckle broke that silence. I looked up to try and get a clear idea of what I was up against. 

The only thing that came to mind, as I looked up at the creature that had been sent to destroy me, was that he looked like a giant homeless man. He was wearing an oversized sweatshirt, with the hood drawn up over his head, and faded, worn jeans. His sneakers were falling apart and the smell coming off of him was worse then Mrs. O'Leary after a bath.

“Um... who are you looking for? Percy... what was it...Jackson? Never heard of him.” 

I know it was a lame thing to say but my mind had gone completely blank. There I was, kneeling on the ground, with a chunk bitten out of my shoulder and in the shadow of this behemoth. The sun was quickly setting and the streetlights started to come on, casting his shadow even longer over me. After a few seconds he was kneeling down to studying my face in the dim glow of those streetlights. 

“Don't play dumb with me, boy. I know exactly who you are,” He said in an annoyed tone. “Ares made sure to give me all the information I would need on you, little hero.”

My eyes widened as I realized I wasn't going to be able to talk my way out if this. I began to turn, ready to push off from the ground and run as fast as I could out into the street on the other side of the alley. Unfortunately, Tityos had other plans. 

As quick as I was, Tityos was quicker. The moment I started to shift away from him his hand wrapped around my ankle. In one hard jerk he throw me across the alley and into the brick wall on the opposite side, like a rag doll. My head connected with the wall before I felt gravity's familiar tug downward. Pain erupted in my ankle as I landed in a heap on the pavement. I'm pretty sure it was at least sprained.

I heard his foot steps getting closer to me, and as I lifted my head a wave of dizziness came over me. I could only guess that I had a mild concision and with a sprained ankle my chances of getting away were getting slimmer. I drew Riptide and waited for him to approach.

Apparently he found this funny as a mocking laugh rang through the alley. 

“What are you going to do with that toothpick, boy?” he said between chuckles. I narrowed my eyes, grit my teeth, leveled Riptide with his heart, and with my good foot, launch myself towards him. 

His grin stayed in place as he ducked his arm under mine and then in an upward jerk, knock my arm to the side. The motion caused Riptide to slip from my fingers and skid across the alley's floor. My heart stopped as it skidded towards a storm drain, teetering for a moment on the edge before plunging into the sewer below. Now I had lost Riptide, and thanks to my own momentum, I couldn't stop myself before running straight into his chest.

His monstrous arm quickly rapped around my much smaller torso as he lifted me off of the ground. I felt his grip tighten and heard the audible crack of one of my ribs breaking and an ache the told me a few more of them were threatening to go.

“Come on demigod,” Tityos said quietly. “I was told that you would be hard to take down. Don't tell me the Ares oversold you?” In that moment he let go and I crumbled unceremoniously to the ground. As my bad ankle connected with the pavement pain shot up my body and I had to clamp down on the scream that threatened to escape. Tityos moved to stand over me and started to fidget with the front of his jeans. “Oh well, this just means that we can skip to the fun part so much sooner. Now how in Hades do I get these damn pants off?”

What I did next may have been the dumbest thing I've ever done, considering that I was in no condition to run. It was so tempting, Tityos was just standing there, legs spread apart, all his attention on trying to figure out how a zipper works, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. I kicked him in the balls.

A howl rang trough the alley as Tityos grabbed his crotch and fell to his knees. I knew it wouldn't be long before he recovered and came after me, angrier than ever, so I had to get as far from him as a could before that happened. Unfortunately this was much harder then I thought it would be considering my sprained ankle, broken rib, and the gaping, bleeding wound on my shoulder. I gathered all the strengthen I had and started to crawl as fast as I could to the opening of the alley. My best hope is that someone would see me and maybe a crowd would gather. Hopefully Tityos would back off if there were a lot of people around. Of course if he didn't, he might kill everyone and it would be completely my fault. 

“Get back here you little bitch,” Tityos gritted out as he took advantage of my momentary hesitation and made a grab for my calf. 

“No!” I yelled in alarm as I felt his finger close around my shin. “Let go! Let go! Help! Someone!”  
Screw it, I was out of options, my best hope was that someone might hear me and call the cops or something. As his other hand grabbed high on my thigh, right over my vine tattoo, I felt the panic rise on my chest. “Someone! Please! HELP ME!”

~snap~

The air shifted. A strong odor of grapes consumed the alley. I didn't even need to look up to know that the calvary had arrived. Dionysus was here.

Tityos reared back with a loud screech, clutching the hand that had been on my thigh and the smell of burnt flesh seeping into the air. 

“You!” Tityos screamed. “You dare interfere! I'll--” what ever he had been about to say was cut off and only a choked gurgle escaped. 

Tityos stumbled back with a horrified and panicked look on his face. He started to claw at his throat, but it was a useless exercise as vines started to pour out of his mouth. His eyes began to bulge and bleed before being forced out of his sockets by the vines that quickly sprang out to fill the void. His struggling ceased as vines started to grow out of his ears. His body seemed to hang limply in the air before I notice a writhing movement under his hoody. The writhing became more frantic before his stomach was stretch as far as it could go and Tityos exploded into nothing but a massive pile of vines as blood splattered across the alley. The vines continued to twitch around before slowly retreating into the ground.

A familiar weight was suddenly in my pocket as I realized Riptide had finally come back. But even my sword's frustratingly bad timing couldn't dispel the memory of the horror that I had just witnessed. 

“Disgusting animal,” Dionysus growled out disdainfully. I turned to stare at him, my eyes wide and disbelieving what I had just seen. My head started to swim as the adrenaline started to fade and the blood loss started to get to me. Dionysus turned towards me and began to walk calm to were I lay sprawled out on the ground. Once he was in front of me he began to kneel down to survey the damage, but despite my best efforts, I could feel my eye lids starting to drop.

“It's alright, you're safe now.” Dionysus's voice sounded oddly soothing, and before I could decide if I believed him, my tired eyes had made the decision for me.


	15. Chapter 15

I woke up in my own bed. I had been having a dream that may have involved chipmunks or squirrels or groundhogs. I couldn't remember which, but there were definitely cute, fuzzy, woodland creatures involved. I came to the conclusion that it was probably a good dream, and for the first time, of what I assumed would be many that day, I regretted waking up at all.

My shoulder was heavily bandaged and my ribs were in a similar state. My ankle was wrapped in an ACE Bandage and propped up on a stack of pillows. I shifted to sit up, causing pain to shoot through my ribs and shoulder.

A soft light soaked the room as the sun began rise outside the window. I glanced through my open door towards the living room. There were no lights on out there. I heaved a relieved sigh, glad that I was alone in my apartment. I needed some time to myself to get my thoughts in order.

I had been so sure that Dionysus hated me. It had pretty much been a constant since my first day at camp. So why did he save me? It may have been him just being possessive, but when he showed up in that alley it felt like there was something more. If it had been him not wanting people touching his stuff (I cringed at that thought) then why did he relent so easily when I wanted to leave camp? When we had talked that morning over a month ago he made it seem like he actually cared about my life. ‘I was angry at myself… For having to be the one to imprison you in this situation by omitting the details, but if you had chosen death I…’ he never had finished that thought. 

I took a deep breath. The fact of the matter was that I was going to be stuck with him for the rest of my life, which thanks to him would now last forever. If I really thought about it I knew that I couldn’t live with being angry at him forever, even if he did deserve it. If I was going to get through this I had to find some way to make peace. I needed to talk to him, and I just hope that he’ll hear me out. 

No time like the present. “Dionysus,” I called out to my dark apartment. “If you can hear me, I would like to talk to you.” I sat back and stared up at my ceiling, nothing to do now but wait.

“How are you feeling?” he asked from my door way. 

“I’m sore all over but I’ve had worse,” I said. “I have something to say and I want to get through this so please just listen until I’m finished, okay?”

He just nodded and sat down in my desk chair that had rolled its way next to my bed. 

“Okay, I want to start by saying that what I’m about to say doesn’t mean that I’ve forgiven you, but I’ve sent the past month being angry at you, angrier then I’m ever been in my life, and it’s exhausting. I don’t want to live like that and the thought of feeling this way forever…” I took a deep breath. “That’s not an option. So, I want to try to make things work between us, not because I want to be with you, but because that’s what I need. But I’m not going just do whatever you tell me. I want us to get along but if you do something I don’t agree with then I’m still going to call you out on it. I want you to respect me not as your subordinate but for who I am as an individual. And I also need to be able to enjoy being free to live my life the way I want to. I can accept that you are now a permanent part of my life, but I won’t put up with your abuse. This is nonnegotiable. Agreed?” 

“Agreed,” Dionysus said softly but there was a hint of a smile on his lips. “Percy, I have no intention of letting you come to harm. Not by my hand or anyone else’s. I can’t offer you complete freedom: we’re bound, so the fates won’t allow for you to completely separate yourself from me. But I will do what I can to make sure that you have as few restrictions as possible. You have my word, Percy.”

“You called me Percy,” I said.

“You were pretty insistent that I call you by your name.”

“Does this mean that you’re not trying to keep me at a distance anymore?” I asked. I had been thinking about my conversation with Hermes a lot since I left camp and got a little piece and quiet. 

“I have no idea what you mean,” Dionysus said as he leaned back in my desk chair. “As you said, we have to spend eternity together, and I’m beginning to think that your company might be entertaining, if not enjoyable.”

“Thanks,” I said with an eye roll. I shifted on the bed to find a more comfortable position but the movement just made me wince in pain. Dionysus sat forward and moved to help before I assured him that I was ok.

“You should get some rest. It’ll help you heal faster,” Dionysus said once we were settled.

“Ambrosia would help me heal faster.”

“When you’re immortal it’s no different than regular food,” Dionysus replied. “It’s fatal the mortals and only heals demigods in small quantities, but too much is still fatal, as you know.” 

I nodded. I guess that made sense but I still wish that weren’t the case.

“I just have one more thing that I want to ask.” I took a deep breath because it was something I’d been wondering for some time now but I was a little scared of what the answer would be. “Are we gonna have to… um…you know…do it again?”

“Do it? What exactly is it?” The smug smirk on his face let me know that he knew exactly what I meant.

“I’m serious! Is it something that we’re going to have to again for some reason?”

“Not unless you want to,” Dionysus said dismissively. “But you’re a 17 year old boy, and will be at that physiological age for as long as you live. If you feel the need for a physical aspect in our relationship then all you need to do is ask. But the nature of the bond won’t allow for infidelity on your part. If you attempt to physically consummate with someone other than myself, the poison will activate once again.”

“Right,” I said slowly. “So no ‘physically consummating’ but kisses are ok.”

“Absolutely not,” Dionysus’s face darkened.

“But Eris kissed me!” I could feel the panic raising. “Does this mean the poison’s active again? Oh my gods, does this mean that we have to-“

“Percy, calm down,” Dionysus said in an amused tone. I’m glad he could was enjoying himself at my expense, I thought sarcastically. “You’re not in trouble for what happened with Eris. As you said ‘she kissed you’. Had it been the other way, then there would have been a problem.”

“Wait, I’m confused. So I can’t kiss anyone but if they kiss me then I’ll be fine?”

“It’s not complicated,” Dionysus said with a sigh. “The easiest way to explain it is that the poison reads intentions. Bonding you to me didn’t extract the poison, it simply nullified it. But if you were to brake the conditions of the bond the poison would reactive.”

“Okay, I think I get it, now. Let’s just say, hypothetically,” I said hesitantly. “The poison was to reactivate. Would re-bonding, or whatever, nullify it again?”

“It would, but if the bond broke in that way I may not wish to re-bond you to me.”

“Hey,” I put my hands up. “I have absolutely no intention of breaking the bond. I just want to know, you know, just in case.”

Dionysus nodded, but he seemed to be lost in thought. I couldn’t think of anything more to say so I let the silence drag out between us. To my surprise sitting there with him, not saying a word to each other, wasn’t awkward. It was actually kind of relaxing, which was nice on my aching body. I hadn’t realized how tense I was when the conversation started, but now, I don’t know, it was kind of peaceful. That is until, my stomach let out a growl that I’m sure even the neighbors heard. 

“Um…sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I guess I’m kind of hungry-” I was cut off by another growl but this one came from the living room. “What, in Hades, was that?!”

“It sounds like Seymour is hungry too,” Dionysus said as he stood up and left my room.

“WHO, THE HADES, IS SEYMOUR?!” I shouted after him.


	16. Chapter 16

I shoveled another spoonful of eggs into my mouth. They were surprisingly good, but I wasn’t going to tell Dionysus that. Every so often I would glance over at him and Seymour. He had found Mrs. O’Leary’s Snausages , which I had been meaning to give her when I went to camp but had forgotten to take with me, and he was feeding them to the leopard head.

“Where did you get that, anyway?”

“Him.”

“What?”

“Seymour is a him,” Dionysus said as he stuffed 3 more Snausages into the leopard.

“How can you tell?” I asked. “He doesn’t have any…umm… stuff” 

Seymour growled at me, before Dionysus held a Snausage in front of his nose. Great now the cat hated me.

“He told me,” Dionysus said simply. 

“Right,” I said slowly. “So, where did you get him, and why is he in my apartment?”

“I was at a garage sale up state, when you were attacked,” Dionysus shrugged like he was talking about the weather. “They had the nerve to be proud of themselves for killing such a magnificent creature. I haven’t been able to take him to camp yet so, for now, he’s here.”

I looked at Seymour with some sympathy as he chewed another handful of Snausagues . I wonder if I should tell Dionysus that those are not supposed to be a meal. 

“What did you do to them?”

“Nothing they didn’t deserve.”

That was not a reassuring thought.

“Why not give him his body back?” I asked as I watch Seymour swallow his mouthful. “And where does the food go?”

“Are you finished with your breakfast?” He asked, completely ignoring my questions. I just nodded as he took my plate scraped the left over eggs into Seymour’s mouth. After he put the plate in the sink he came back and sat across from me, since the only other chair was propping up my sprained ankle. 

“I think it would be best if you came back to camp,” Dionysus said slowly, almost cautiously. 

“You can’t be serious,” I said flatly. Going back to camp seemed insane to me. It used to be so safe and fun. My home away from home. At one point in my life I would have died for Camp Half-Blood, but now it seemed so hostile. Sure I still had Grover, and even Annabeth was talking to me again, sort of, but my roommate still hated me, everyone acted like I was a freak, Balckjack wouldn’t talk to me, I’d been attacked by Ares, molested by Eris, and raped by the guy I just had breakfast with. My head was starting to hurt.

“I know that you’ve had some difficulty adjusting to our situation, we both have,” Dionysus said slowly as if expecting me to blow up at any second. “But you said yourself that we needed to get used to being around each other. As you know, I have to be at the camp so it makes sense that you would be there as well.”

“Couldn’t you just visit here every so often?”

“Are you planning on throwing a party every time I visit?”

“No.”

“Then no,” He said simply. “I’m the god of revelry; I can’t be seen showing up at places that aren’t in the midst of celebration. It’s a waste of energy and would draw a lot of unsavory attention to this spot.”

“Are you saying that you being here could attract monsters?” I asked.

“Coming and going as you suggested would, yes,” Dionysus said as if it was obvious. “And now that you’re bound to me, you’ll draw even more monsters to you then you did as a mere demigod.”

“So if I want to protect my mom and Paul I have to go back,” I said more to myself then to him. “Wait, if they were going to be in danger with me here, why didn’t you tell me that before you let me leave camp!”

“It’s not as if you would have let me stop you from leaving,” Dionysus countered. “While your family is here their smell can help to mask yours, but if I’m popping in and out of here regularly the monsters in the area are bond to get curious.”

We both fell silent. I wanted to find some way to stay here but I couldn't put my mom in danger, and I did say that I wanted to give whatever was between Dionysus and me, a chance to be something we could both live with. 

“Okay,” I finally said. “I’ll come back to camp, but can I stay in Poseidon’s cabin?” I saw him start to protest. “It’s just that, Pollux,” I said quickly. “He hates me. If I stay with him, he’ll smother me in my sleep or something.” 

“He wouldn’t do that,” Dionysus said. He paused and seemed to think for a second. “It is not permissible for you to stay in your father’s cabin any more. The only other option for you is to stay in the big house.”

“With you?!” I tried to keep the alarm out of my voice but I didn’t do a great job. 

“No,” He said defensively. “There are plenty of rooms in that house. You can even have your own bathroom.”

I sighed. There was no getting around it. I couldn’t stay here and put my mom in danger, and staying with Pollux was not something that I wanted to go through again. He had made it pretty clear that he still thought of it as his cabin and I was just an unwelcomed guest. But staying under the same roof as Dionysus? Sure, it was a big house, and I probably wouldn’t see him around camp any more often then I normally would have. Plus Rachel would be my house mate too, until school started that is, but that was two months away. Maybe things would be better by then 

“Fine,” I huffed. “Just let me leave a note for my mom and then we’ll go.”

“You don’t have to leave just yet,” Dionysus said. “You still need to recover. Just have your mother drop you off in a week, which should give you enough time to tell your mother about our situation. And, when you do come to camp, bring Seymour with you.” And with a ‘pop’ he was gone.

“Wait! My mom and Paul won’t be back for another month! Dionysus!” I yelled out to my now empty apartment. “At least take Seymour with you!”   
Seymour growled in agreement from his spot on the table. I leaned forward and began rubbing my temples. Now what was I supposed to do? And did he seriously think I was going to tell my mom?

I heard the scrape of a key in the lock echo through the silent apartment. I wrapped my fingers around riptide in my pocket as I heard the tumblers in the lock shift and the door swung open.

“Percy?” It was my mom’s voice. She sounded worried “Percy?! Are you here?”

“I’m in the kitchen,” I called back.

I heard my mom drop her bags as she ran through the apartment into the kitchen. As soon as she saw me she wrapped her arms around me and nearly pulled me from my chair. I heard her whisper ‘Oh Percy’ and ‘It’s ok. You’re ok’ as her arms tightened around me.

“Mom?” I asked hesitantly. “What are you doing here? You and Paul were supposed to be gone for a month. Why are you back so soon?”  
My mom pulled back and I saw tears starting to form in her eyes as relief seemed to spread over her face.

“I was so worried about you,” She said as she took in every new bruise and scrape. “Ever since we left I kept having these awful dreams about you. That someone was trying to hurt you. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that you were in danger.” She closed her eyes and shook her head, like she was trying to shake the tears away. “I thought I was just being overprotective, but then Paul said he had had the same dreams. And then we got this note,” she reached into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper.  
I unfolded the note and read it:

‘Dear Mr. & Mrs. Blowfish,  
Percy needs you.  
\- D   
P.S. You’re out of eggs’

“Percy, honey,” my mom said quietly, her voice shaking. “Please, tell me what’s going on.”

“Mom,” I swallowed in an attempt to clear my throat. “I have some things that I need to tell you. This summer has been really weird. Even for me, and that’s saying something.” I gave a hallow laugh. “I should start at the beginning, when I got to camp. You see-”

“Sally! Is he alright?” Paul’s voice came from the front room. I heard a few thuds as the rest of their luggage hit the floor as his footsteps hurried closer. 

“Yeah, he’s fine,” my mom called back as Paul entered the kitchen. As soon as he saw me he rushed forward and gave me a hug. It lasted a few seconds before he pulled back to look me over like my mom had.

“Look at you,” his eye wide with concern. “What happened?”

“If you two want to take a seat,” I took a deep breath. “This could take a while.”

“Okay,” said my mom as she and Paul took their seats round the table. “But first, explain why there’s a leopard head on my table.” 

Seymour let out a loud purr as my mother began to scratch behind his ear.


	17. Chapter 17

I climbed out of Paul’s Prius, the one he had before was totaled last summer so he had gotten a newer model. I had my duffle in one hand, my backpack over my shoulder, and Seymour wedged under my arm. My mom gave me a quick hug that I awkwardly tried to return without dropping everything.

“If you need anything,” My mom said as she held my shoulders. “I mean it, Percy. If you need anything, no matter how big or small, you tell me. Okay?” I nodded and she pulled me in for another hug. “I love you. No matter what happens that will never change.”

“I love you too, mom,” I said before breaking the hug. “Thanks for being so cool about everything.”

“Oh Percy,” my mom had a small smile on her face. “I love you so much, please take care of yourself.”

“I will mom.”

I had told her and Paul the majority of what had happened since my summer began. I told them about Ares attacking me, and Dionysus saving my life (I did not give them any details of how he saved my life). I left out the whole Eris disaster, too, but I told them about Ares punishment in Hades, Paul seemed relieved that he’d been punished at all and mom was annoyed that he’d gotten only 50 years. I told them about moving in with Pollux, and that Poseidon won’t talk to me. When mom heard that last part she almost ordered an impromptu trip to the beach so she could scold Poseidon in person. Frankly, I would have liked to see that, but Paul managed to calm her down. 

I ended by telling them that I was immortal now. They both got really quiet for a few minutes while they tried to work their minds around the fact that I would now live forever. 

Mom seem to go back and forth from confused, to relieved, to concerned, and in the end she seemed a little sad. Later she asked me if this is what I wanted. I lied and said yes.

After that the rest of the week went by pretty quickly. I was all healed up by the third day and the rest of the week was uneventful. My mom seemed to get along with Seymour really well, so well that when I was packing up last night she asked how I’d feel if I came home to a new kitten. I told her that might be nice, but in truth, I was planning on staying at Camp Half-Blood full time. She seemed downhearted with the news but said that given what I’d told her, she understood.

I made my way up to the Big House, passing a few campers as I did. Some whispered as I passed, others looked confused, the Stoll brothers waved up at me from the lakeside as they stepped out of a canoe, and a son of Demeter asked why he hadn’t seen me at meals lately, then he handed me a Ziploc bag of Corn Pops. 

I stepped through the front door of the Big House only to find that the main room was empty. I did find a note on the coffee table folded in half with my name written on the outside. 

“Pick whatever room you want.  
You can leave Seymour in the main room.”

I put Seymour down on the coffee table and gave him a pat on the head. He pushed his head into my hand and let out a small mewl, which made me smile. What can I say? The little guy had grown on me.

“I’ll see you later, Okay?”

I decide to head up stairs to find a room. As I got to the foot of the stairs I looked up and was so startled I almost dropped my Corn Pops. At the top of the stairs was someone’s silhouette. The sun was so bright through the widow behind it that I had to squint to make out any features. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was just Rachel.

“Oh man, you startled me,” I said with a laugh, as I began to climb the stairs.  
Rachel began to descend the stairs. She stared straight ahead like she didn’t see me. Her movements seemed awkward, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. They just seemed stiff and distinctly un-Rachel. Maybe she was mad that I hadn’t sad good bye? That was probably it.

“Hey, listen,” I started awkwardly as I came to a stop in front of her. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to see you before I left. Everything just happened so fast and this summer’s been crazy. I just-” 

Her shoulder hit mine as she walked past me and I probably would have been knocked down the stairs if I hadn’t grabbed the banister. Rachel didn’t even seem to care. She just kept going down the stairs.

“I said I was sorry!” I yelled after her, but she just ignored me and turned the corner towards the kitchen.

“What was that about?” I grumbled under my breath as I adjusted my backpack and continued. ‘She’s probably just having a bad day or something,’ I thought.  
As I got to the second floor and looked down the hall. In one direction was Rachel’s room, if she was angry at me perhaps it was best to keep my distance. Down that why was also the attic, and even though it was now empty it still really creeped me out.

I walked down to the other end of the hall way and pushed open the door at the end. The second I saw the room I knew it was mine. It was literally my room! Same posters, same desk, same hoodie hanging over the back of a chair; the only differences were an extra door off to the side, a large window that faced out towards the lake, and a huge four post king sized bed. 

I put my bags down on the bed and looked around. I opened the door to the closet to find that it was already full of my clothes. It even had that old ratty gym bag that I kept in the back corner and stuffed my bad test scores into so my mom won’t see them. I guess I could get rid of that now.

I opened the extra door and found that it lead to a bathroom. A really nice bathroom. A toilet was in a smaller closet-like room, and a mirror that took up the whole wall behind the sink. There was a huge whirlpool tub in the center of the room, and an alcove off to the side that looked like a shower, but showerhead look like a big square directly overhead. I turned it on to see how it worked and it poured out like rain instead of the usual stream of water.

“Cool,” I said to myself as I turned it off. 

I went back to my room and started to unpack my bags. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

And that’s when the earthquake hit.

Actually, it didn’t feel like an earthquake, and I should know, I’ve caused an earthquake. Just the one time but it kind of leaves an impression. Whatever was happening, the whole house was shaking. After a few seconds it seemed to stop, but without the quake to distract me I noticed that the tattoo on my thigh was burning. It didn’t hurt but I did sense some anger seeping through it. That couldn’t be a good thing.

I raced out of my room and down the hall. I made it to the top of the stairs in time to see Dionysus storming through the main room and out the front door. I stood there frozen for a second trying to figure out what was happening. An angry Dionysus was never a good thing, especially for me, but for once it looked like I wasn’t the one he was mad at. Which meant he was angry at someone else, maybe even a camper… shit.

I took the stairs two at a time and ran through the main room to the front door. I rushed out on the porch to see that Dionysus had made it half way to the lake but it looks like he’s aiming for the picnic tables. There are only two people sitting there right now though, Travis and Connor Stoll. 

They barely had time to look up before the table exploded, sending bits of wood everywhere. They hit the ground hard but managed to shake it off. Travis ran to Connor, pulling him to his feet, but by the time they had gotten their sense back enough to try to run vines had begun to wrap around their ankles, causing both of them to fall back to the ground.

“Dionysus!” I called out pushing myself to run faster. “Stop!”

He didn’t seem to hear me and continued advance towards them, the vines kept them pined, but it looked like Travis was trying to move himself in front of his younger brother. Despite the increased burning from the tattoo on my thigh, I managed to get a good burst of speed that put me between Dionysus and the Stolls.

“Stop,” I put my hands up in front of me hoping to calm him down. “Please, just calm down and we can all talk about this.”  
A crowd began to from around the four of us but I was too busy trying to concentrate on keeping Dionysus away from the Stolls. 

“Move,” Dionysus said, through clenched teeth. I heard Connor scream as the vines tightened around them. The campers from Hermes cabin, who were gathered in the crowd, were trying to move forward to help their brothers, but the other campers from other cabins held them back.

“No,” I yelled back. “Just take a deep breath and we’ll talk about it. Whatever you think they did, we can make it right. Just stop.”

His eyes began to glow purple and he took a step closer. I stepped back, only to trip over a bit of exploded table, and landed on my butt. Dionysus was still moving towards the Stolls so I scrabbled back up to my knees and threw myself practically on top of the two boys. I looked back at Dionysus, ready to try and get him to calm down, but my view was obstructed when someone else stood between us and the enraged god.

“Stop!” That was Pollux’s voice. “Father, please stop this.”

The vines vanished in an instant.

“Pollux, you and Percy need to get out of the way,” Dionysus’s voice was still tense with anger but at least he had stopped. “They need to be dealt with.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Pollux said. “We’re going to talk this out before this gets out of hand.”  
Dionysus seemed to study Pollux for a moment, and Pollux held his ground. I couldn’t help but respect the guy a little more because of it. He was still a crappy roommate, but his intervention may have just saved Travis and Connor. 

“Fine,” Dionysus relented. “Someone,” he said, glaring at the Stolls, “has stolen something from me and I demand that it be returned, immediately.”

“We didn’t take anything,” Travis said. “We were canoeing all morning. We only just got done and were taking a break.”

“Lies,” Dionysus seethed.

“No, it’s the truth,” I said. “When I was walking up, I saw them getting out of the canoes. Whatever happened, whatever was taken, they didn’t do it.”

“They are thieves and cannot be trusted. They are not the first sons of Hermes to steal from a god, but if I have anything to say about it, they will be the last.”

“WE DIDN’T TAKE ANYTHING!” Connor screamed.

“It’s true,” chimed a voice from the crowd. It sounded like Katie Gardner. “I’ve been with them since breakfast. They haven’t been anywhere near the Big House.”

“See,” Pollux said. “It wasn’t them.”

I got to my feet and help Travis and Connor up. Travis’s knees almost buckled but he caught himself. Connor took a few seconds before even trying. They were both really shaken.

“What was taken anyway?” I asked. It had to be something important to get Dionysus so worked up.  
Dionysus took a few deep breaths before he looked at me and simply said, “Thyrsus.”

“What?”

“It’s one of his symbols,” Pollux explained. “It’s a staff made of giant fennel with ivy vines and leaves all over it, and at the top is a pine cone. Followers of Dionysus would make replicas for their rituals and celebrations.”

“Oh,” I said. “So just make another one.”

“It’s not that simple,” Dionysus said with a sigh as he rubbed his temples. “The Thyrsus is my symbol of power. In the wrong hands it could cause a lot of damage.”

“It’s a symbol of power? Like Zeus’s master bolt?” I asked. I was starting to see why Dionysus was so angry. “Well, we should probably start looking for it. Maybe inspect every cabin from top to bottom? It has to be around here somewhere.”

“It isn’t.” I turned to see Rachel. “It’s not within the borders of camp anymore.”

“And how would you know that?” Dionysus asked, his voice taking on a dangerous edge that made me uneasy. I saw Pollux move closer to Rachel, in case Dionysus got angry again. That’s when Rachel’s eyes began to glow green.

“The one to go must go alone  
In the cave of the bell  
To face the a hero of stone  
Betrayal comes from one you trust  
And save the Easy city from the Cetus”

Rachel’s eyes went back to normal and her knees gave out. Pollux caught her and managed to steady her, keeping her from crumbling into the dirt. 

“Well,” Dionysus said. “Gather the counselors. They have a quest to plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! We have a new prophecy and pretty soon we’ll have ourselves a good ol’ fashioned quest. It’s been great to be writing again. It’s been too, too, long (as I know many of you agree). But I’ve got things planned out now and I should be able to get some good chapters out if it. 
> 
> Oh and if Rachel seemed a little off (it wasn’t subtle so everyone should have caught that) I promise that’s going somewhere. 
> 
> See you in chapter 18! Looking forward to your feedback!

**Author's Note:**

> You may have seen this story on my FF and AFF accounts. If so I would like to welcome you back.


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